Grand Valley State University in Michigan has removed a 500-pound, swinging pendulum sculpture just because students were imitating the Miley Cyrus “Wrecking Ball” music video by riding on it naked and screaming the lyrics “I CAME IN LIKE A WRREEEEEEECKKING BAAALLLLL!”
Students filmed the wrecking-ball rides, of course, and promptly posted then on YouTube. The website Total Frat Move has helpfully compiled some of the videos.
The Grand Valley State Wrecking Ball even got its own Twitter account — @GVSUWreckingBal — which helped the phenomenon go viral.
LOOK HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE RIDING ME @Grand_Valley17
— GVSU Wrecking Ball (@GVSUWreckingBal) September 14, 2013
Sadly, the YouTube videos and the Twitter publicity were probably a factor in the administration’s decision to remove the GVSU Wrecking Ball from campus.
Total Frat Move’s unnamed tipster described the GVSU Wrecking Ball as “a campus landmark” and claimed that “the majority of GV students have ridden the ball at least once.” (RELATED: ‘HALLELUJAH: Developer creates plug-in to block the bane of your existence’)
As of right now, the Wrecking Ball is in a secure, undisclosed location.
“We have it in storage and I can tell you that it’s off campus,” school spokeswoman Dottie Barnes told The Daily Caller.
Barnes added that the sculpture will make a triumphant return to campus at some future time.
“We don’t have a timetable for that but it will come back,” she said.
According to a statement from Grand Valley State, “the sculpture, called a bifilar pendulum, was created by artist Dale Eldred. It was installed in the Kirkhof Center in 1974, where it hung for six years, and was later installed near Padnos Hall of Science in 1995.”
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