Graduation - Who Could It Be?
6/6/17
It’s graduation weekend. Area high schools are gearing up for their pomp and circumstance, the name taken from Act III, Scene 3 of Shakespeare's Othello:
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th'ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!
I was a high school English teacher. I know things like this.
So you’d think I’d be reputable, right? Let me tell you a story which I heard about in the 1960’s. Take your pick: a fabrication, a myth, or an urban legend. Whatever it is, this story was told to me as truth. And when it came to extremely smart, bored, mischievous students’ hi-jinx in the 1960’s at the University of Georgia, I believed it.
UGA is the flagship school for the state of Georgia. It is big. BIG! It’s always had a huge enrollment. Today its enrollment is over 36,000. You had better have some self-control to attend there. It could eat you up and spit you out if you weren’t disciplined enough.
I’d always known that the really, really smart genius type of students had their own kind of pranks. Today they might hack into computers, but in the 1960’s they were pulling different escapades. Still shocking but in this instance not harmful to others.
And here it is: A group of boys created a phantom student, a non-real, yet class attending, test-taking undergraduate. Now I can’t tell you specifics, but this made-up-pupil enrolled, was accepted, paid tuition, and graduated in 4 years. I don’t know WHO these devil-may-care creators were, I don’t know how many were involved to pull this prank off, but I heard that at the end of four years, this student, whose name I forgot but very similar to the name, Alfred E. Neuman from MAD Magazine, was this figment of their imagination.
They could get away with it at the time because enrollment and test taking was all done with a #2 pencil and scan sheets. If one enrolled in a general education core class or a popular major where the classes met in large auditoriums, the professors at the time were not able to identify students or track them as easily. This ruse went on for four years. The guys pooled their money and paid for this hallucination’s education.
The tricksters may have duplicated their efforts if they themselves were in a certain major, let’s say a general business major, to pull this off. Take two tests at one time with a student number they made up from the beginning. It was possible.
And when graduation came, a diploma was waiting for this mirage. His name was called and called and no such person responded on stage to receive it. Those who initiated this spoof had a grand time knowing they pulled it off.
You don’t have to believe it if you don’t want.
It’s graduation weekend. Area high schools are gearing up for their pomp and circumstance, the name taken from Act III, Scene 3 of Shakespeare's Othello:
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th'ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!
I was a high school English teacher. I know things like this.
So you’d think I’d be reputable, right? Let me tell you a story which I heard about in the 1960’s. Take your pick: a fabrication, a myth, or an urban legend. Whatever it is, this story was told to me as truth. And when it came to extremely smart, bored, mischievous students’ hi-jinx in the 1960’s at the University of Georgia, I believed it.
UGA is the flagship school for the state of Georgia. It is big. BIG! It’s always had a huge enrollment. Today its enrollment is over 36,000. You had better have some self-control to attend there. It could eat you up and spit you out if you weren’t disciplined enough.
I’d always known that the really, really smart genius type of students had their own kind of pranks. Today they might hack into computers, but in the 1960’s they were pulling different escapades. Still shocking but in this instance not harmful to others.
And here it is: A group of boys created a phantom student, a non-real, yet class attending, test-taking undergraduate. Now I can’t tell you specifics, but this made-up-pupil enrolled, was accepted, paid tuition, and graduated in 4 years. I don’t know WHO these devil-may-care creators were, I don’t know how many were involved to pull this prank off, but I heard that at the end of four years, this student, whose name I forgot but very similar to the name, Alfred E. Neuman from MAD Magazine, was this figment of their imagination.
They could get away with it at the time because enrollment and test taking was all done with a #2 pencil and scan sheets. If one enrolled in a general education core class or a popular major where the classes met in large auditoriums, the professors at the time were not able to identify students or track them as easily. This ruse went on for four years. The guys pooled their money and paid for this hallucination’s education.
The tricksters may have duplicated their efforts if they themselves were in a certain major, let’s say a general business major, to pull this off. Take two tests at one time with a student number they made up from the beginning. It was possible.
And when graduation came, a diploma was waiting for this mirage. His name was called and called and no such person responded on stage to receive it. Those who initiated this spoof had a grand time knowing they pulled it off.
You don’t have to believe it if you don’t want.
No comments have been added yet.
