McMaster’s engineering emblem — a red fireball — was mounted on a purple sand-filled base that appeared outside the JDUC on Sept. 9, delivered by Western engineering students.
The University of Waterloo, McMaster University, and the University of Toronto (U of T) received similar purple structures on the same day, each displaying an engineering artifact belonging to another university.
An Instagram account documenting university engineering pranks posted photos of letters addressed to the four schools from Western Engineering’s Geer Team. The Geer team is a volunteer group that runs orientation projects for Western Engineering.
The letters explained the Geer Team had “captured” an engineering artifact representing each university and sent it to another campus.
Queen’s received McMaster’s “Blaze,” while Queen’s “Grease Pole” was delivered to U of T. McMaster received Waterloo’s “Tool,” and Waterloo received U of T’s “Skule Cannon.” All of the artifacts were fixed to a purple sand-filled base to prop the object up, with the structures also displaying a black flag.
The McMaster artifact placed outside the Union Street entrance to the JDUC. PHOTO BY ENGPRANKS
The Grease Pole was returned in time for the annual event, which took place Sept. 13.
According to the letters, the four universities were challenged to a race to return the captured artifacts to its original campuses.
In the letter addressed to Queen’s, the Geer Team said the fireball emblem was taken from McMaster and challenged Queen’s students to be the first to return it before the other schools completed their own deliveries. The first to do so would earn Western’s favourability, while the last would “face consequences.”
According to the Instagram account, U of T returned the structure to Queen’s campus on Sept. 13.
“We got to get them back,” Nabeel Khan, Sci ’29, said in an interview with The Journal.
However, in a statement to The Journal, the Queen’s Engineering Society (EngSoc) said it does not share the same sentiment.
“The Queen’s Engineering Society has not and will not engage or respond in any manner to pranks,” EngSoc President, Stephie Leitch, Sci ’27, wrote to The Journal.
EngSoc said its decision to stay uninvolved stems from concerns about unnecessarily using time and resources. Responding to these pranks “wastes student fees that pay executive and permanent staff,” while diverting volunteers’ focus and energy from “improving the student condition.”
Charis Chang, Sci ’29, told The Journal that she thinks very few of her peers even knew much about the prank, and those who did appeared primarily indifferent.
“I think the prank culture in Queen’s is not very big compared to Western,” Chang said.
Khan said the prank seemed “silly” and wondered how it was accomplished without anyone noticing.
Chang said the prank was “very random” because it involved other universities instead of the traditional rivalry between Western and Queen’s.
Tags
Grease Pole, prank, Western rivalry
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