MIT was about to inaugurate a new president, an auspicious occasion of the type that hackers adore. The new president had been the provost at the University of Michigan. U of M is a gigantic (over 30,000 students), high-quality public university which has many branches outside its home city of Ann Arbor, and so jokes about "U of M taking over MIT" began to spread.
Accordingly, hackers created a long (65 foot) banner to mark Vest's inauguration, one that read: "University of Michigan at Cambridge." The banner was made of navy blue cloth, with yellow lettering; the font and the colors were modeled after U of M's own official colors and lettering. The banner was hung from the roof of the Student Center (W20), where school officials, important guests, and student passersby received a fine view of it.
And thus, the hackers celebrated President Vest's inauguration in their own particular style.
The Tech article on Vest's inauguration mentions the banner: Vest inaugurated as MIT's 15th president .