Your Tuition Dollars At Work

Police question living statue at first TAB mystery event
By Alexandra Pedrini/Daily Toreador

Rather than taking his marketing degree and joining the workforce after graduation, Mark Abbati chose to follow his passions and become a living statue.

Tech Activities Board brought in Abbati, from joyUNSPEAKABLE, after seeing him at a National Association for Campus Activities conference. The daytime events committee wanted to bring him in because his act is unlike anything they’ve seen done before, said

Christi Figueroa, a junior psychology major from Katy. TAB kept not only students, but faculty staff, and the campus police out of the loop on the event because part of the fun of a living statue is for people to not realize it, she said.

This plan worked until the hour before Abbati was set to leave, an officer stopped him from interacting with students to ask him why he was on campus.

Because real statues can’t speak, Abbati was forced to find a way of showing the officer why he was there in a manner that wouldn’t be considered evading arrest. He picked up a TAB event calendar and slowly made his way, with the officer, to the TAB members’ table that explained why he was there.

“I thought that was ridiculous,” said Kristina Fore, a sophomore psychology major from Plainview. “I thought that it was pretty silly because it was obvious that he wasn’t posing a threat. He’s been here for a while and the campus police just now stopped him.”

TAB members explained why the live statue was there and he was free to continue interacting with students for until he left campus.

“We advertised this as a mystery event and we did not specifically say that we were having a live statue man because we wanted it to be a surprise for people,” said Sonia Moore, unit coordinator for student activities.

Throughout the day, Abbati dressed in his most popular bronze costume and spent the day in the Student Union Building.

TAB chose the costume because he originally was supposed to pose outside among the other statues between the library and the SUB. Because of the cold weather, he was moved inside, Moore said.

Because he’s a living statue, Abbati wasn’t limited to simply standing in one place all day, but interacted with students and faculty walking by.

“He walks pretty funny; he’ll be pretty robotic,” said Erin Rinderknecht, TAB event daytime coordinator and sophomore pre-communications disorders major from Taylor.

I'm not going to criticize this guy for refusing to grow up and get a real job instead of pretending to be a statue on a college campus. The main reason I'm a masters grad living in my brother's back yard and working in a liquor barn is the shirking of responsibility but at least I'm not wasting my peers' money.

Times are tough right now and aside from the terrible economy, I'm sure Tech students are paying more than ever to go to school there. Its bad enough I had to pay to get a degree from a school that loses its accredation every two or three years but now students have to pay to have a living statue bother them in the Student Union? This is another one of Tech's brainless, money wasting ideas. Not to mention its probably annoying as hell. Hopefully next time the campus cops will crack his skull.

Also, if I was one of those cops and that damn kid refused to break character to answer my questions I would have hauled his ass in for formal questioning. I wouldn't be getting punked out by a living statue.

P.S. - That's just a random photo. It's not from Tech.