Early this morning, between 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m., a student, or several students, played a practical joke and toilet papered the quad using the toilet paper provided to them by Trevecca.
“We usually try to keep that much of it locked up somewhere, but they must’ve gotten a whole box of it somehow,” said Norman Robinson, director of university security. “They sure had themselves a good time with it.”
Robinson said there aren’t any suspects right now, but security is still looking through video footage from last night in hopes to find a lead.
Plant Ops spent some time this morning picking up what they could low to the ground. Glen Linthicum, director of plant operations, estimates that it will take about five or six hours to clean it all up and cost about $1,000 without having to use a moon lift. He hopes the rain will wash some of it out.
“It’s not cheap to clean up,” said Linthicum. “I like practical jokes, but try to make them fun instead of destructive. When we have to spend hours cleaning this stuff up, that means we can’t get to some work orders today, because this was unplanned.”
Linthicum also mentioned the way this makes the campus look to prospective students taking tours today and how this might influence their decision to come to Trevecca.
However, both Linthicum and Robinson admitted this was one of the better TP jobs they’ve seen.
“I’d have to say of my past experiences with toilet paper, I’d give this one a 10,” said Robinson.
“When they did it, they did it well,” said Linthicum. “I’m sure God would’ve been well pleased with their effort,” he joked, referring to Ecclesiastes 9:10.
Linthicum said his hope in the end is that the students who did this did it because they thought it was funny and not out of anger or spite.