2008 Woodie Awards
Students pull prank on GU
Tim Takechi, Staff Writer
Issue date: 11/14/06
Last Updated: 12/26/07
Numerous flyers and Whitworth Pirate banners littered Gonzaga University in a prank organized and carried out by Whitworth students early on the morning of Nov 1.
Several flyers titled "95 Theses on Why Whitworth is Better Than Gonzaga" were posted on various buildings. These flyers poked fun at Gonzaga University, the apartment building fire that occurred there last March, President Friar Robert J. Spitzer and the sex scandals within the Catholic Church, according to a broadcast by KHQ Local News.
David Tobias, a senior at Gonzaga, works in the office of the vice president and was one of the first students to know about the prank. Tobias started a group on Facebook.com in response to the posting of the "95 Theses."
"I felt like being a spirited Bulldog and take pride in my school," Tobias said.
Campus security removed all the flyers and banners by 7 a.m. before most of the students saw anything, Tobias said.
Tobias took down the Facebook group because he said students were using the group to plot retaliation against Whitworth in the future.
Whitworth administration confirmed that the perpetrators of the prank were current Whitworth students, said Dick Mandeville, associate dean of students.
The students in question identified themselves to the administration. The punishment handed down to these students could not be specified due the administration's policy of revealing sensitive details to the public, Mandeville said.
Mandeville said the students will make a statement to Gonzaga as part of the process of re-establishing respectful communication between the two institutions.
"Because this was a pretty public event, part of the outcome will include a letter of apology sent to the students of Gonzaga which will either go to them via e-mail or be published in their student newspaper," Mandeville said.
The timing of the prank coincided with Reformation Day, celebrated by Protestants every year in honor of the day that Martin Luther posted 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on Oct. 31, 1517.
Several flyers titled "95 Theses on Why Whitworth is Better Than Gonzaga" were posted on various buildings. These flyers poked fun at Gonzaga University, the apartment building fire that occurred there last March, President Friar Robert J. Spitzer and the sex scandals within the Catholic Church, according to a broadcast by KHQ Local News.
David Tobias, a senior at Gonzaga, works in the office of the vice president and was one of the first students to know about the prank. Tobias started a group on Facebook.com in response to the posting of the "95 Theses."
"I felt like being a spirited Bulldog and take pride in my school," Tobias said.
Campus security removed all the flyers and banners by 7 a.m. before most of the students saw anything, Tobias said.
Tobias took down the Facebook group because he said students were using the group to plot retaliation against Whitworth in the future.
Whitworth administration confirmed that the perpetrators of the prank were current Whitworth students, said Dick Mandeville, associate dean of students.
The students in question identified themselves to the administration. The punishment handed down to these students could not be specified due the administration's policy of revealing sensitive details to the public, Mandeville said.
Mandeville said the students will make a statement to Gonzaga as part of the process of re-establishing respectful communication between the two institutions.
"Because this was a pretty public event, part of the outcome will include a letter of apology sent to the students of Gonzaga which will either go to them via e-mail or be published in their student newspaper," Mandeville said.
The timing of the prank coincided with Reformation Day, celebrated by Protestants every year in honor of the day that Martin Luther posted 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on Oct. 31, 1517.
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