Sitting on the floor of the Campus Safety Office between a miniature television and a coffee maker is the Roger Williams head bust that was reported missing on March 24.

The schemers are still unknown, but Richard Honholt, director of Campus Safety, said that “We trust that those who were responsible will know in their heart when it’s time to come clean.”

 The more than 80-pound head bust was missing for four days, from March 24-28. The investigation began at the usual resting place of the bust: the lounge area underneath the library staircase.

Honholt and his team searched throughout campus and found it peering over the edge of the Corum roof.

“The inclination in my mind was that it was probably some sort of college prank,” Honholt said.

If the situation had confirmed theft, Honholt said that it would have been investigated properly by his staff and local law enforcement. Luckily, his assumption about the prank was confirmed, and no further investigating was needed.

“We found it extremely interesting that there certainly were a pretty-well established group of students in and around the area ready to see [the Roger Williams’ head bust] rescued from the roof,” Honholt said. “And all the earmarks were there that it was pretty clear that it was intended as a campus prank.”

According to Honholt, another campus prank was pulled a couple of years ago.

Unknown students hung a deer carcass, most likely roadkill, from the steel Cornerstone logo sculpture in front of the Bernice Hansen Athletic Center.

Other pranks include missing signs being “put in some pretty awkward spots,” Honholt said.

The safety director said the base of the head bust was chipped and scratches are on the head, but it could be worse. The amount of damage will not cause a significant financial expense.

Fred Sweet, director of library services, said that since it is a piece of art work that was donated by its creator, Jim DeVries, a local sculptor, and never appraised, a dollar value hasn’t been assessed. But as an original work of bronze art, he said that the head bust is of “considerable value.”

DeVries presented the library with the Roger Williams head bust in 2006 during the library’s 25th anniversary. Roger Williams founded Rhode Island and advocated religious freedom.

Andy Fox, a junior majoring in business management, is a circulation worker in the library and was the first to notice the disappearance. Last semester, he relocated the head bust from the reference section and changed the display. He happened to see one of his buddies sitting in the lounge area under the staircase and decided to walk over. As he was talking to his friend, he noticed the head bust was gone.

“Um, hey, where did this go?” Fox said.

Honholt said that he recognizes the “element of fun” that he thinks every college student deserves.

 “My philosophy has been as long as someone doesn’t get hurt and something doesn’t get damaged to a degree where it is irreversible, that’s where we draw the line,” Honholt said.

He said judging from the weight of the head bust and the effort it must have taken to place it on the roof of the Corum, he was sure the minor damages were an accident.

But if the head bust had fallen off of the roof onto someone, Honholt said that “this is one of the things that sometimes, in the spirit of fun, on the forefront, we don’t think about the negative consequences.”

For now, the Campus Safety director is satisfied that no one was hurt and that the head bust was found.

“At this point, we will consider the case resolved,” Honholt said.