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[[File:Drop squad christmas.png|thumb|A Christmas tree being dropped down the Low stairwell, estimated to be in late 1992]]

The '''Rensselaer Drop Squad''' was a clandestine group of students in the 1992-1993 school year that were known for dropping a variety of objects down one of the two stairwells of the [[Low Center for Industrial Innovation]]. Their exploits became more and more extreme until they were eventually discovered and disciplined.

== History ==

The Drop Squad allegedly started in October 1992, when a group of five students were attempting to find a way to destroy a phone they had stolen from a residence hall's computer lab (which were, at the time, present in each dorm)<ref name="dropsquad">[https://web.archive.org/web/20140831022736/http://dropsquad.com/taxonomy/term/1  Archive of www.dropsquad.com]</ref>. After some wandering around campus, they decided to destroy the phone by dropping it down the Low stairwell. This was then followed up with by dropping a pumpkin on October 30th, and then dropping nine smaller pumpkins the next day in observation of Halloween. 

Their next drop occurred sometime around early December, when they dropped an office chair down the stairwell at roughly 2AM. This got the attention of members of the night crew of Environmental Services, who posted a message requesting they stop, citing risk of injury<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eCNcWAf1jI "Rensselaer Drop Squad Free Falling" by Matthew Grossman]</ref>. In the run-up to the winter holidays, they dropped a Christmas tree and paper airplanes with festive messages written on them. Using footage of their prior drops recorded with a video camera, they created a video of their drops and distributed it around campus.

The Spring 1993 semester began with a drop of shreds of unusable video tape, as well as many used tennis balls, followed up by several records of the video in honor of a departing member. Following drops included copies of the ''[[Polytechnic]]'', ground coffee, and a typewriter.

The last drop was of 125 McDonald's hamburgers, along with large quantities of ketchup. This was timed to coincide with the end of a movie being shown in the [[Darrin Communications Center]], allowing the members of the Drop Squad to blend in with the crowd. One member of the Drop Squad was busy during this drop, and out of anger of being left out, turned in its members. It is unclear what became of the students, but a website later made to catalogue their history implies that at least some were expelled<ref name="dropsquad" />.

== Legacy ==

In August 2008, a network of metal cables was put into the two Low stairwells, making dropping large objects down the stairwell impossible.

== References ==
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