The Night the Billings Hall Boys Stacked a Professor’s Room
A dorm prank at Whitman College turned into a discipline case after beds were overturned, lights broken, and a bureau jammed against the door.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
One of the Billings Hall boys broke into the room of a professor last night while the Faculty Club was meeting. The beds were overturned, the electric light bulbs were broken, and a bureau was pushed against the door. The escapade leaked out, and the dean of Billings Hall came over—but only in time to catch three boys prowling around in the vicinity of the room. They could not give a satisfactory account of their presence there, and it is expected that they will have to answer before the discipline committee. The professor who was the victim of the “joke” has nothing to say about it.
“The professor who was the victim of the “joke” has nothing to say about it.”
Dorm pranks still make campus folklore, but in 1903 they could land students before a faculty discipline committee. The item is a small window into Whitman College life—and the thin line between high jinks and property damage.
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