For memorable campus moments, this one’s up there.

In April 1989, engineering students worked into the night breaking apart a Volkswagen Rabbit and then hauled the pieces by rope to the turret of Tier Building, where they reassembled the hatchback in a parking spot overlooking campus. (Years later a Lincoln appeared on Buller’s roof.)

“My impression is that the engineers focused on [the Faculty of] Arts for pranks because that is where one could get the attention of the best-looking girls,” says Dave Ennis [BSc(CE)/61, MSc/11], who documented decades of hijinks in his book on the Faculty of Engineering’s history.

Former Dean Doug Ruth [BSc(ME)/70, MSC/72] remembers when students unbolted half the chairs in an Arts lecture theatre, turned them 180 degrees, and then refastened them to the floor.

Nowadays, pranks like these are rare even though school spirit remains high, says Ruth.

“Maybe as competition to get in has gone up, students are more studious, although the best pranks in the past were always done by the gold medalists.”