MIT Hacks—Baker House Piano Drop

[MUSIC PLAYING]

WOMAN: Yeah, look. Look at-- they're all up there. They're going to do it pretty soon.

MAN: Basically it's a piano that they drop from the rooftop of Baker House onto the lawn, which we have to repair afterwards. But I hear through the grapevine that this might be the final year.

STUDENT: This has been going on for 32 years, since 1975. It started just as sort of one the MIT hacks. They would just basically take the piano up the room themselves, and then just throw it off onto the Amherst alleyside. It got restarted by the students here five or six years ago after they drew up elaborate safety plans, talked to MIT, got sanctioned, got the state permission, all the safety was intact. And so they could continue this tradition.

Nice to meet you.

ALUMNUS: I was here from 1977 to 1981, when we used to throw it off the other side.

CHILD: It's going to be very cool, because it will fall and break.

STUDENT: The good thing about the pianos is they're all broken. So it's not like we're wasting good pianos that could have gone to charity or anything like that. They're useless, and we're using them to get out a little frustration after drop date.

STUDENT: Drop date is the last day at MIT where you can officially drop a class without it being counted against you on your grades or on your academic record. And--

LOUDSPEAKER: 25 minutes to piano drop.

WOMAN: Are you excited?

CHILD: Yeah.

MAN: They're going to miss. They're going to miss.

WOMAN: They're going to miss?

MAN: It's not lined up right. They're going to miss.

STUDENT: Count down from 10 to zero. Get the crowd riled up, and then throw the thing off the roof.

Just stress.

CROWD: Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

[CHEERING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]