Students who have worked industriously on a prank are often saddened to see the results of their work vanish in less time than it took them to do it. Even if the maintenance staff does its work with great efficiency, however, the pranks go down in college lore. Calvin's tradition of practical jokes has been moribund of late. It's not that students don't perpetuate them, but there has been a lack of inspiration among the campus pranksters. Calvin's pranks come in bursts.
Some institutions manage a steady flow.
Pranks there make national news. Recently, a full-sized model of a police car, complete with blue flashing light, appeared on the top of a campus dome. My favorite comes from the University of Wisconsin, where enterprising students put a large-scale replica of the top sections of the Statue of Liberty atop the frozen campus lake. Alas, the Steinberg records not a single Calvin story. We are failing in our duty to transform every area of culture.