Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: News

Media Credit: courtesy of Erik Cowick Posted on the social lounge door, a message from a Woodland Hall resident assistant tells students to give any information to the RAs about the vandalism in the lounge. According to the second sign posted, 'Sadly, this means that the social lounges are locked until further notice.'

Media Credit: courtesy of Erik Cowick A jumbled mess, a social lounge in Woodland Hall is closed to the residents due to a hit from vandals.

When chairs are overturned, a microwave is stained with ramen and a trashcan overflowed with the remnants of last night's dinner, one could assume it has simply been a normal dorm day. Residence halls may suffer from a lack of cleanliness from time to time, however, the actions considered as vandalism may require repercussions, according to Housing policy.

When vandalism hit a few of the social lounges in Woodland Hall this past weekend, resident advisers were forced to shut all of the lounges down.

Sophomore and criminal justice major Erik Cowick of Mt. Sterling, was directly affected by the incident at Woodland Hall.

"When I came home Saturday, there was a sign posted on the social lounges," Cowick said. "You could look through the door and see that a few chairs were tipped over, but it wasn't too trashed. Later we heard that there were even feces in the lounge though."

Sophomore sociology major Thomas Knapp was not at SIUE during the vandalism, but found out about they events upon arrival.

"I thought it was even funny that just the furniture was tipped over," Knapp said, "but they kind of crossed the line when they closed all of the lounges."

Despite that such vandalism occurred in a few particular social lounges, the necessity of a lounge was made a reality to Cowick because the microwaves located inside were off limits. According to freshman and physical therapy major Elizabeth McConell, these microwaves are essential for dinner at Woodland.

"They took away our microwaves, and we're not allowed to have any in our dorms…." McConell said. "We didn't [cook]. We bought dried cereal from the [Morris University Center] and put it in our fridge."

Without cooking utensils available to them, the students questioned how long they would be without cooking hot meals in the dorms.

"There was no clue around Woodland on how long it'd be shut down," Cowick said. "It's funny because all of the RAs can get a note on your door within an hour for a wing meeting, but we didn't have a clue."

According to Woodland Hall Community Director Kyle Lineback and Assistant Community Director Michelle Farney, the staff at Woodland Hall are unable to release a statement as of Wednesday.

Because of the amount of students affected by the lockdown, Cowick said that the entire procedure was "mass punishment."

"We could at least use an ID for social lounges or even cameras," Cowick said. "We just need something besides locking the place down."

In Section F of the Housing application, a "resident agrees to use the grounds, premises and university property and furnishings in a proper and responsible manner and … to surrender same to the university in good repair and condition as normal use dictates. The resident will be charged for misuse or damage within the living unit or common area of the building in which he/she lives."

However, because the vandal was unknown at the time of misuse, the lounges were simply closed. According to Schultz, this is also partly because of past vandalism in residence halls.

"Over the years vandalism has happened in other places as well," Schultz said. "The way we respond is just to a particular issue. We try to find out who that someone was and close off the room until then."

Freshman construction management major Mike Samson said he agreed with the actions carried out.

"If someone trashed my room, I'd start locking it up," Samson said.

In order to solve the problem, the staff looks to students for help in finding the source of the vandalism, according to Schultz.

"Tell us who is causing it, and we'll resolve it by dealing with the issue so that it doesn't affect everybody," Schultz said.

Schultz said the Housing committee also gives advice to students on how to avoid the situation altogether instead of having to halt the use of the lounges.

"Sometimes our reaction is just a judgment of how to respond to a situation, and this time the staff did the proper thing," Schultz said. "If university property is being abused, try to confront the situation and if there is no response, the student should contact the housing staff or university police."

Despite that Housing has stated their position on why the repercussions were carried out in such a way, students found their actions inappropriate for actually addressing the main issues.

"There wasn't really a lesson to it. We didn't really learn anything," Cowick said. "The ones who did it probably don't even use the social lounges. They probably didn't even care."

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