Freshmen Build Trampoline and Bouncy Castle on LSC Quad

Talia Cutler ’27

Editor-in-Chief

On Tuesday, April 7, 2026, students at Trinity spotted a large trampoline erected on the LSC quad. Behind the stunt were William Tozer ’29 and Clive Connolly ’29. 

“We were on Facebook Marketplace and realized that you can get trampolines for relatively cheap. We paid some guy 30 bucks and we took it apart, took it back in two trips and built it between midnight and 1 a.m.” Tozer commented. “A lot of my friends ended up walking past us and decided that they wanted to start helping out. I think by the time we were done there were about five people.”

The trampoline was up for a day before being taken down by campus safety officers, or, “campo.” However, Tozer and Connolly assured the Tripod that there is no ill will towards Director of Campus Safety Donna Tadiello.

“Donna Tadiello was super nice to both of us. She was very understanding that we were not trying to be malicious in any capacity. She knew that the whole point was to get people together and just have fun. She basically said we have to go through the right channels, that we couldn’t have it up because it’s a liability, but she liked it and wanted to know if I wanted my trampoline back,” Tozer said. “We only have positive experiences with campus safety,” Connolly emphasized. Campus safety did not respond to the Tripod’s request for a comment.

Despite the hasty end to the trampoline, the pair were not ready for the outdoor fun to end, bringing in a bouncy castle to the same spot only ten days later on Friday, April 17. Once again, campus safety officers were sent to take the castle down later that same day. 

“Cooper came by with two other campo guys,” Connolly told the Tripod. “Cooper did a very thorough investigation sniffing around the bounce house. The campo guys told me it had to be unplugged and shut down and as I’m talking with them, Donna calls me and she says ‘Hello Clive, I see you on the camera,’ so it definitely felt super Orwellian. You know, we definitely do live in some sort of a [Chinese Communist Party]. It definitely felt like a surveillance state.”

Although they had two run-ins with campus safety, the pair are not worried about further pushback or punishment. “We read through the rulebook and there’s nowhere in there that says you can’t do this,” said Tozer. “The rulebook in its current form has no rules saying we couldn’t put up a trampoline to bounce on,” Connolly added. “I’m sure there will be next year,” joked Tozer. 

Despite the short-lived nature of the trampoline and bounce house, Tozer and Connolly are proud of the positive reactions and sense of community that came from the ordeal. 

“A professor told me that there were kids in his class talking about it, and they were excited to leave this class so they could go jump on the trampoline. We overheard campus safety officers bantering to each other about how they thought it was great that the school put it up — because they assumed the school put it up,” Tozer commented.  

“Just walking by the lawn going to class and seeing people jump on it was truly special. I mean, knowing that our goal was to build a community together and bring fun to the campus — seeing it in real time was really nice,” said Connolly. “So, do you know if this will be like a front-pager or what?”