The university is asking for students to come forward with any information regarding damages over the weekend to the Commons residence hall, according to an email sent by Commons Residence Hall Director (RHD) Andrew Lavoie.
Damages were made to a couple of picnic tables near Hill residence hall, ceiling tiles in the Mountainview and Commons residence halls, the glass window in the front door of Perlroth residence hall and a Village residence hall window, according to Associate Vice President for Facilities Keith Woodward.
Every year, students celebrate an unofficial school holiday known as May weekend during the last week of April. The weekend is viewed by most students as a chance to relax and spend time with friends before final exams begin.
The damages that occurred during this past weekend were no different than in previous years. During May weekend in spring 2014, students punched out more than 240 ceiling tiles in freshman residence halls. On March 25, students punched out majority of the ceiling tiles in Commons prior to Easter weekend, causing over $11,000 in damages, according to Lavoie.
Lavoie sent an email to all of the Commons residents asking students to come forward with any information regarding the person responsible for May weekend related damages. In the email, Lavoie said the students who caused the damage to Commons during Easter weekend have been caught because students came forward.
“I once again come to ask for your assistance,” he said in the email. “This weekend, more damage was done to our building. I encourage anyone who has information regarding damage or vandalism to our home to come forward. Working together, we can address a major issue in our home and hopefully have as positive a result as the one I just shared with you.”
Freshman Sara Karr, a resident of Commons, saw ceiling tiles punched out and destroyed in a couple of the hallways in Commons.
“It just made me upset because that’s where I live and it is sad to see people ruining it for no reason,” she said.
Freshman Jessica Leger, despite not physically seeing the damages, was able to find out about them from social media.
“I saw several Snapchats about the damages and all the debris on the floor,” she said. “All the ceiling tiles were completely out of the ceiling.”
Freshman Angela Miguel, a resident of Commons, was aware of the damages that occurred over the weekend. She said the damages to the building were not a new occurrence.
“I saw pictures about it, and it wasn’t as bad compared to the other times,” she said. “There were two sections out of all the ceiling tiles punched out.”
Some students, such as freshman Ryan Ansel, said they did not witness any major damage or destruction.
“I didn’t see any property damages, but I felt like the whole school was intoxicated at the same time,” he said.
Ansel did however, get a firsthand view of students that were celebrating for May weekend.
“I’m walking down Bobcat Way, and I’m looking up the hill and I see dozens of people, clearly drinking and partaking in party antics and stuff like that,” Ansel said. “It looked like a lot of fun and there was a lot of unity and it looked like kids we’re just having a good time before finals. I didn’t really see much damage to any property.”
Ansel said Public Safety was doing a great job keeping students safe during May weekend.
“I think aside from the girl going missing Friday night and them finding her six hours later, Public Safety was doing just fine,” he said. “They were patrolling areas where students can walk in and out and they were checking bags. They would ask you to open the bags.”
Miguel also said Public Safety did a good job handling the situation on-campus.
“There was a girl that was on the sidewalk outside of Tator (Hall),” Miguel said. “She looked like she was about to pass out, and Public Safety was there to make sure she was okay. I also thought keeping the road blocked off was a really good idea to make sure everyone was safe.”
Leger said she felt as though, despite Public Safety doing a good job overall on campus, there is room for improvement.
“It was all during the weekend, when people were drunk, so maybe if there were more people monitoring the hallways, like Resident Assistants,” she said.
Miguel said she does not believe there is an easy solution to controlling the damage students do to the buildings.
“You can’t hound on every person and say, ‘Hey guys, you can’t punch out the ceiling tiles,’” she said.
Chief of Public Safety Edgar Rodriguez did not return a request for comment in time for publication.
CORRECTION: This article was updated on May 5 at 11:45 a.m. to attribute the list of damages from the weekend to Associate Vice President for Facilities Keith Woodward and not by Commons Residence Hall Director (RHD) Andrew Lavoie.
