Annual Event Hacks
Holidays and other annual events have two traits that make them excellent opportunities for hacks: they often have amusing traditions or customs associated with them, and they're recurring. The traditions themselves provide a source of ideas for hacks, and the fact that the traditions will be repeated each year allows planning to happen long in advance. The result has been an abundance of good hacks over the years.
Tuition Announcement
- 1993 $10,000 Bill Mural at the Cashier's Office
April Fool's Day
- 2013 Welcome Back Hockfield
- 2008 Garden in CSAIL for April 1st
- 2003 Post-It picture on List Center Media Test Wall
- 1998 MIT web page changed to claim that Disney was buying MIT.
- 1996 Shower Stall in Student Center Athena Cluster
- 1993 Chemical Elements Athena Cluster in the Student Center
Independence Day (July Fourth)
- 2007 Red, White, and Blue Dome for Fourth of July
- 1996 Foo Bar on July 4th
- 1993 VU Meter on the Green Building
Hallowe'en
- 2017 Foam Dinosaur on Kresge
- 1999 Spider Web in Lobby 7
- 1997 Gargoyles in Lobby 7
- 1996 Bring Out Your Dead
- 1994 Great Dome Pumpkin [reprise]
- 1993 Witch's Hat on the Small Dome
- 1992 Cathedral of Our Lady of the All-Night Tool in Lobby 7
- 1991 Music and Spiders for Halloween
Presidential Elections
Harvard-Yale Game
- 2006 "Huge Ego" at Harvard-Yale game
- 2000 Hackers drop beavers at Harvard-Yale Game
- 1990 Cast on John Harvard
- 1990 Harvard-Yale End Zone Banner
Thanksgiving
- 2013 Thanksgivukkah Dreidel on Building 10
- 1990 Smurfs in Lobby 7
Christmas/Hanukkah/Yule/Kwanza/Saturnalia/etc.
- 2006 Gehry Christmas Tree in Stata Center
- 1993 Menorah on the Small Dome
- 1990 Christmas Lights and Presents on the Small Dome
CPW
Campus Preview Weekend (CPW) is when many prospective students come to visit MIT. This has recently become an opportunity for hacks to demonstrate MIT culture.
- 2022 Wordle is IHTFP
- 2012 Tetris on the Green Building
- 2010 Upside-Down Lounge appears near the Media Lab
- 2009 "Creative People with Words" items appear around campus
- 2008 UFO crashes into Stata
- 2008 In Case of Zombie Attack, Break Glass
- 2008 Media Test Wall Rickroll
- 2008 I Will Hate This F***ing Place
- 2007 Working traffic light in windows of building E25
- 2007 Large paper airplanes in Lobby 10 and Stata
- 2007 Parody of The Tech distributed by Caltech students
- 2007 Mooninite Is Not a Bomb Banner
- 2006 Caltech's Fleming Cannon transported to MIT by Howe & Ser Moving Company
- 2006 Peace, Love, and Linux Penguins in Condoms
- 2005 Caltech vs. MIT
- 2005 Banner drops at acapella concert during CPW
- 2003 Anti-harvard banner at CPW
Graduation
The annual Commencement ceremony provides a captive audience for hacks as parents and students wait for their names to be called. Invited speakers are often the targets of these hacks.
- 2007 I'll Have Thesis Finished Pronto at 2007 Commencement
- 1996 Al Gore Buzzword Bingo for Graduation
- 1993 Pooh