Fergie's Tech Blog

At MIT, A War on Pranks?

Elizabeth Weiss Green writes on U.S. News & World Report:

Last October, police discovered three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students in the kitchen of the school's faculty club, just in front of a crawl space, in possession of metal tools. "None of them could give me a legitimate reason for being in the Faculty Club Kitchen," an officer wrote in the subsequent police report, according to the Boston Globe. Students say the reason was obvious: They were "hacking," the MIT tradition responsible for pranks like putting a fire truck on the roof of a building and transforming a regular lobby into a cathedral.

In the past, the university turned a blind eye, handing out minimal punishments like fines or community service, but now the students caught trespassing in the faculty club face criminal charges and up to 20 years in prison, according to the Globe. Students worry it's a "war on hacking," but police say hacking has nothing to do with it. Their response, according to the Tech : "How do we know a hacker from a thief?"

posted by Fergie @ 2/17/2007 04:08:00 PM