Not sure where to put this thread. There was one memorable Macgyver episode about barricades. Anyway, how much structural damage do the CIT houses incurr these days? I know that “brute force” stacks are no longer popular (forcing rooms open using ledgehammers or even forklifts.) But stacks employing “honor” or “finesse” still require some modification/alteration or the doors and rooms.
Um…what?
I don’t know. With all increase in home electronics, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were majority electronic nowadays (although there’s obviously always room for nostalgia).
Oh, yes, and here, Munch. (I already knew what it was, but there’s plenty of good Google results.)
An individual stack is designed, built, hosted (the choice of verb depends on the particular stack) by a group of seniors, usually two or three. They rarely revolve around breaking into rooms anymore. While there are some that involve “work” like hacking, code breaking, etc., most are just elaborate scavenger hunts or a series of silly activities that lead a group of undergrads around campus. In any given year, one will typically see waterballoon fights, rafting in the fountains, traversing a labyrinth, etc. As a particularly illustrative example, for a while outside of Dabney House, there was a broken-down motorized couch that was part of a stack. Rumor has it that motorized vehicles are no longer allowed because the brakes on this couch failed, but I can’t verify that. Stacks often have a pop culture theme, like Super Mario World or Breaking Bad, and virtually all stacks provide the participants with custom-screened T-shirts.
As you might expect, some stacks involve drinking, and as you also might expect, these stacks are officially forbidden. When you choose a stack on the morning of Ditch Day, it will be very clear (usually from the identities of the seniors involved) which stacks these are. There is (was) a nonzero number of hallucinogen-related stacks as well, but I’m no longer in tune with the undergrad community to know if there is enough support to sustain these anymore.
Structural damage to the houses is not common, and most such damage does not occur as a result of Ditch Day. Undergrads used to have quite a bit of unspoken freedom in modifying the Houses (tunnels through walls, telephone networks, etc), but after the South Houses were renovated in the late 00’s, this freedom was quickly scaled back to keep the Houses “nice”.