When students at Pomfret Hall returned from Spring Break this week they found what looked like a giant sink hole in the middle of the floor in their Great Room.

Just the sort of thing that could be caused by an earthquake.

It got them asking questions – starting, of course, with, “what the heck is that?”

Which is exactly what was supposed to happen.

University Housing staffers – who now have their offices in Pomfret Hall – wanted to do something to promote earthquake safety awareness as part of a national campaign called the Great Central U.S. Shake Out.

The message they wanted to get out was fairly simple: what do you do in an earthquake? Drop, Cover, and Hold On. 

But to get the message across they needed to get people’s attention.

Nothing like a huge 3-D painting of a giant sinkhole in a residence hall floor to do the trick.

And it worked.

Once word spread around campus the news media got interested -- three local television stations have visited Pomfret to do stories about the painting – and the awareness campaign.

The “sinkhole” will probably be removed in a week or so – but it might be appropriate to replace it with  a banner saying “Mission Accomplished.”

Or maybe “April Fool.”