I'm surprised a GT student was so careless TBH. Tor + an anonymous proxy if you're gonna be futzing around in someone else's network, even if you don't intend to cause any tangible damage!
According to one Reddit commenter, the UGA calendar is left wide open for submissions - and in some cases, posts may be under minimal (if any) review. So it may be that he simply found the wide open URL, filled out a form, and hit 'submit'.
http://www.reddit.com/r/gatech/comments/2quflw/georgia_tech_...
Seems like that would be fair game without using Tor or some other proxy - since there are no terms or conditions of use mentioned on the form, seems like it's open to anyone to post. But who's to say?
He then put it in his own truck and drove off, so he was pretty quickly caught.
I do not support crimes of any sort, but much like illegally downloading music, selecting particular people to make "examples" of with over-the-top punishments is immoral. The punishment does not fit the crime here at all.
On another note, as a GT alumni, I find his prank absolutely hilarious. There is also a tradition at Georgia Tech of stealing a "T" off the top of the main administration building. These "T"s are massive; I believe they weigh close to 200 pounds. How anyone manages to scale a building and pull one down is beyond me. Especially with all the pressure sensitive equipment they have up there nowadays. The tradition is supposedly banned since someone can get hurt, but a guy managed to pull it off last year, and the whole school thought it was fantastic.