Sword in the Stone: Difference between revisions
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"An Engineer's responsibility to Society is represented by the Sword of Damocles, which dangles precariously from the thread of Knowledge imparted by this institution. Mistakes cannot be covered, Failures cannot be buried and Obligation cannot be denied; to accept Bad Workmanship is to sever the Trust of our Calling and strike tragedy upon us all." | "An Engineer's responsibility to Society is represented by the Sword of Damocles, which dangles precariously from the thread of Knowledge imparted by this institution. Mistakes cannot be covered, Failures cannot be buried and Obligation cannot be denied; to accept Bad Workmanship is to sever the Trust of our Calling and strike tragedy upon us all." | ||
==Additional Information== | |||
From Chris Colohan (COMP 9T7, LGMC Leedur 9T5-9T6): | |||
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Hi there! I read your posting on the "Save the Sword" group, and was going to post some more info for you, but don't know my way around Facebook well enough to post. Perhaps you can take this info and forward it to the group? | |||
Background: I was in Skule from 92-97 (COMP 9T7), and was LGMB leedur and Skule Stage Band director 95-96. | |||
I joined Skule in '92. That was not too long after the BFC got in deep trouble for some vandalism of the Varsity building (which I _think_ was in '89 or '90, but I am not sure). This vandalism was fairly crass and sexist, and as a result the BFC was officially disbanded and all official connection with the Engineering Society was cut off. The group was supposed to just go away, and that would make the political (and possibly legal) problems this vandalism incident incurred go away too. As far as I can tell, a small group of people kept the BFC alive, but without any official support. | |||
In support of the now nonexistant BFC, someone printed a large number of vinyl stickers featuring a blue and gold shield with a sword on it. (I don't know how long these stickers existed, or if they predated the "banning of the BFC. But there were _lots_ of them around, and they were sold out of the Skule Store.) Members of the now nonexistant BFC took to putting these durable stickers up on every flat and visible surface they could find in downtown Toronto. If you look hard you may still find some in the damndest places. | |||
Grad pranks were pretty popular back then. Many of the grad pranks (especially CIV and GEO) would involve erecting a "permanent" monument to the graduating class -- often constructed out of concrete, steel and plenty of rebar so it would be hard to remove and last a while. The faculty seemed to tolerate this as long as the pranks were safe, not _too_ ugly, and inoffensive. The folks in the now non-existent BFC though that leaving a monument to themselves as a "sword in the stone" would help folks remember them, even though others were working to make sure they were forgotten. | |||
So a few guys got together and welded themselves up a large sword. They got some folks in a CIV lab to help them with casting a very large block of concrete to set it in (I think is was 8'x8'x3'). This was a new form of experimental extra hard concrete. They put all sorts of rebar in it. They let it set for a couple of months in a hidden location so the concrete would be even harder (making the stone harder to destroy). They then, in the middle of the night, hired a crane to lift the stone onto the lawn in front of Sanford Fleming (facing Convocation hall), and cut the loops of rebar used to move the stone off flush. | |||
The stone was discovered by the faculty the next morning. By 10am there was a crew of three workers attacking it with jackhammers. By 4pm it was gone. Some of my CIV friends claimed that this was the longest they have ever seen a piece of concrete stand up to such an assault with jackhammers. | |||
The folks from the non-existent BFC were disheartened. But one of them managed to find the sword poking out of a dumpster, and rescued it. They unofficially talked to some of the decision makers in the department, and found out that it was less likely to be demolished quite so quickly if it was not visible from Convocation hall. So, over several months, they came up with a plan to recreate their monument in front of the main entrance to Sanford Fleming. In the middle of the night, it reappeared. And that is the last place I saw it, when I left Skule for grad school in '97... | |||
So if you get opposition to this sword project from faculty that have been around for a while, one reason may be due to the associations with the BFC. The BFC caused some pretty major administrative headaches when I was there, and also did a pretty good job of upsetting some people (often on purpose). | |||
Hopefully this info is useful, and good luck! | |||
Chris | |||
[[Category:Pranks]] | [[Category:Pranks]] | ||