“Octobunk” stacks up enjoyable at Stanford

Within the early hours of Oct. 20, a gaggle of round 20 freshmen assembled on the Oval, prepared to start the development of the “Octobunk.” Their plan was to stack eight dorm beds on high of one another within the Oval, making a tower that created a big bunk mattress.

Almost 100 college students confirmed as much as observe the occasion at round 2 a.m. — a mix of people that had heard of the super feat by word-of-mouth, or individuals who had merely been strolling previous.

By that time, the organizer of the “Octobunk” building had already been planning it for weeks. He agreed to talk with The Day by day on the situation of anonymity, because of worry of going through disciplinary motion by the College.

The organizer had rented a truck, which he picked up at round 4 p.m. that day and parked at a pal’s home close to campus. At 1 a.m., the scholars met in entrance of Branner and loaded six mattress frames and mattresses from a Branner storage room. The opposite two have been beds from college students’ dorm rooms — one was his personal, and the opposite belonged to a pal who was hospitalized on the time and had given him permission for it for use within the “Octobunk.”

At 1:40 a.m., the scholars arrived on the Oval with the rental truck, unloaded the beds, used a degree to search out essentially the most horizontal space and commenced to stack. Shouts of pleasure erupted from the group because the tower grew taller with every mattress. They navigated the rising construction in the dead of night, illuminated solely by a pupil’s automotive headlights and the glow emanating from Fundamental Quad.

“We had individuals who have been truly on the tower, pulling up the bunk beds to set them up. There have been individuals on the bottom ensuring to both maintain the construction or to tie the ropes,” mentioned Bennett Zytko ’27, who was answerable for the “Octobunk” discipline logistics. 

College students cheered and snapped footage because the eighth and remaining mattress was added to the highest of the tower at 3:30 a.m., finishing building of the “Octobunk.”

After finishing the construct, college students climbed up the rungs and sat on the beds, reveling of their accomplishment. Assured in its stability, college students daringly climbed to the eighth layer — 28 toes above the bottom.

“On the finish, about 30 of us hopped on the construction. We took one large group photograph, which was nice. After which individuals simply took turns climbing the tower,” Zykto mentioned. “The view from the highest was so spectacular, I’ll always remember it. And being there with my mates is a reminiscence I’ll always remember, a reminiscence I’ll inform my youngsters.”

Round 8 a.m. that very same morning, the “Octobunk” got here crashing down. In response to the organizer, Residential & Eating Enterprises (R&DE) employees pushed the construction down, breaking many of the beds earlier than throwing them away.

He had hoped that the “Octobunk” would have been stored up lengthy sufficient the place they might wait till the following night time to take it down themselves. “We had a way. We have been gonna push it down and maintain it with the ropes — we had a method.” Nevertheless, the organizer agreed that it “was essentially the most affordable method to carry it down” and doesn’t “blame them for taking it down that means.”

The thought of the “Octobunk” got here from the straightforward need to “simply have enjoyable,” the organizer mentioned.

“I knew that lots of people would discover the ‘Octobunk’ silly and lots of people would discover it pointless,” he mentioned. “However what I actually didn’t like was individuals asking me, ‘What’s the purpose?’ I assumed that that was actually emblematic of one thing I don’t like about Stanford — individuals right here which might be so centered on simply the ends, they don’t consider simply having enjoyable and having fun with the second and the method.”

Earlier than coming to Stanford, the organizer had learn an article in Palladium Journal concerning the shift in Stanford’s campus tradition, from college students being given the liberty to construct an island in Lake Lag within the Nineteen Nineties to “Stanford’s Struggle on Enjoyable.”

“It actually learn my thoughts when it comes to my disillusionment with Stanford,” the organizer mentioned. “I wished to go to this faculty for thus lengthy, since I used to be 12, and I assumed it was the place the place all the youngsters weren’t simply attempting to climb the system, however somewhat buck the system.”

Nevertheless, since studying the article and coming to Stanford, he felt that the administration “was probably not encouraging [that type of] contrarian considering that when made the college so nice,” he mentioned.

Previous to the occasion, there had already been a triple and quadruple stacked bunk in Branner, constructed by a distinct frosh resident, which ended up going viral on the nameless social media app Fizz.

“These have been very spontaneous — that was like a MechE main getting drunk and simply placing them collectively. However the ‘Octobunk’ was me,” mentioned the organizer of the occasion.

Whereas constructing, they bumped into just a few points, however problem-solved alongside the way in which. As a result of defective pins that held the bunks collectively and an unstable sixth layer, they used ropes to harness the construction to the bottom in any respect 4 corners, stabilizing the construction.

Nevertheless, one in all his largest regrets with the “Octobunk” was that the upkeep employees have been tasked with taking it down. “They needed to threat their security, get up early on a Friday morning, and exit to the Oval to wash up our mess. That was a miscalculation,” the organizer mentioned. “I ought to have figured that Stanford was gonna make them try this.”

As for the implications of the “Octobunk,” the organizer hoped that “no people will likely be punished.”

In response to the Residence Settlement Insurance policies and Procedures, which was shared with The Day by day by R&DE spokesperson Jocelyn Breeland, “College-provided inside furnishings (e.g. widespread space and pupil room furnishings) is probably not moved outdoors, together with to patios or balconies, for any motive.”

Within the case that injury to College property “can’t be attributed to a particular individual, the residence is billed and all residents are held collectively and severally liable,” Breeland wrote.

The Day by day reached out to the College for touch upon the potential repercussions for college kids and Branner, however they declined to touch upon “pupil conduct instances.”