University takes down wrecking ball pendulum after Miley Cyrus parody video

By Staff Writer: Logan Tesmer

Miley Cyrus and her new music video, “Wrecking Ball”, have gained raving reviews, popularity and notice around America, with her tearing down concrete walls with a sledge hammer and riding naked on a metal wrecking ball.

One Grand Valley State University student in particular took an interest in the video. Making his own parody of the video, the student was found swinging on the “GVSU Wrecking Ball” naked and singing Miley Cyrus’ new hit single.

After six days of the student’s parody on the internet, the video reached over a hundred million views, making it the quickest video to reach that milestone. The video has since been removed from YouTube and Vine, but that hasn’t stopped other websites from grabbing the video, and increasing its hits.

Installed 40 years ago, the wrecking ball pendulum at GVSU has been taken down by the university’s administrators, due to “safety reasons”. Since 1973 students at GVSU have always attempted to ride on this structure, sharing their videos and pictures on the internet, all documenting moments of great joy from students and visitors of the campus riding on the ball. The wrecking ball has been cherished by everyone on campus, from the science department taking students to the pendulum to study the geometric shapes it leaves in the sand beneath its 500 lbs of metal and the point of the pendulum, all the way to a wedding held beside the ball taking a role in all the wedding photos.

The pendulum has history for everyone that has visited its former home; it even has its own Twitter account, where all week students have been sharing their memories and stories of the pendulum. “#REINSTALLTHEBALL” tweets GVSU Wrecking Ball on Twitter.

In spite of all the news of the wrecking ball being removed, the administrators are looking into new ways to increase the ball’s safety and security issues. The Twitter account also quotes the vice president of facilities services: “We really need to verify the structural integrity right now, and consider the safety ramifications and look at whether or not there’s a better way to install it.”

The GVSU Wrecking Ball for now is being held on an off-campus storage facility until further notice.