All students who live in Becton Residence Hall are being charged for repairs following an incident of vandalism to a men’s restroom on Feb. 27. Due to the expansion of key fob access to the entire Quad Feb. 24 , all students who used their fob to enter the hall between 5 p.m. Feb. 26 and 9 a.m. the next day are being charged as well.
At about 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 27 a resident adviser in Becton contacted Jordan Luzader, community director of the Quad, and showed him vandalism which a Quad-wide email revealed consisted of a Confederate flag and the words “the south will rise again” carved into the door and wall of a stall in a second floor bathroom.
Director of East Campus Housing Aris Mosier said Luzader and the RA followed protocol by calling campus police to determine whether the message carved was threatening.
“The police decided it was just vandalism,” Mosier said.
Facilities staff attempted to repair the stall the next day with sanders and a heat gun but were not satisfied with the result, he said, and a work order was placed to replace both walls and the door. The cost of replacement is about $1,100, and will result in a charge of $5.10 added to each student’s account, Mosier said.
The RA who found the vandalism was not identified, and Carol-Ann Osterhoudt, an RA in Bagwell Residence Hall, said the housing staff received an email explicitly telling them not to speak with Technician on the issue. Luzader said his position did not allow him to comment on the situation either.
But the incident has caused a stir among residents of the Quad affected by the charge, as many are concerned about the handling of the situation
“Stuff happens, charging everyone isn’t the right solution,” said Steven Rodriguez, a junior in mechanical engineering who lives in Berry Residence Hall. “It would be a whole different story if Jordan [Luzader] went door to door and asked everyone for a $5 bill; it would seem like a lot more.”
Residents are specifically concerned that Facilities determined that carved graffiti couldn’t be repaired and was considered grounds to replace the vandalized structures.
“Apparently it’s scratched into a door, which to me means the fix is you putty over that and then maybe if you want you get like a $2 can of paint and cover it up so it looks like the rest of the door,” Tim Dannenhoffer, a sophomore in applied mathematics and aerospace engineering and Becton resident, said. “That fix is like five dollars and 15 minutes and that’s pretty much how [it] should really be fixed. But apparently that’s not the important thing.”
A floor meeting was held March 9, and residents were given until March 15 to come forward and claim responsibility. Mosier said no one admitted to the carving by that date.
On March 11 an unidentified student managed to reface the stall through his own means, leaving a note behind stating, according to Rodriguez, “It’s an insult to call us an engineering school if we can’t come up with a simple and easy solution to a problem like this.”
Mosier said that even though he was glad a student took the initiative to fix this problem himself and that he’d heard it looked good, the work order had already been sent and couldn’t be cancelled because “the wheels [were] already in motion.”
Rodriguez said he did not understand the need to replace the stall.
“It’s already fixed. It looks pretty good, there’s only a slight dull gray spot,” he said. “It doesn’t bother anyone. It’s not fair to charge everyone.”
Dannenhoffer said he also disagreed with the group punishment.
“It sounds like first grade to me. It’s really almost juvenile,” he said. “No one’s happy about how it’s been handled.”
According to NCSU’s housing guidelines online, “Charges for loss or damages which cannot be assessed to a particular individual will be charged against the residential unit (floor or suite) responsible.” The charging of all who entered Becton hall, though, was covered in Luzader’s initial email to Quad residents announcing the approval of universal fob access.
The email reads: “Along with these additional benefits comes some additional responsibilities … any damages that cannot be attributed to an individual or group of students will be split amongst the entire community.”
Some in housing were wary of this sort of occurrence when students petitioned for universal key fob access to the entire Quad, according to Mosier.
“The executive decision had to be made,” Mosier said of charging all who entered Becton when the vandalism was supposed to have occurred. “With universal access, how do you hold members accountable?”
Dannenhoffer said he thought the issue of the increased fob access was not a contributing factor.
“It’s not like more people are in the dorm now, it’s just that it’s easier to get in like it should have been all along,” he said. “I think the timing there was unfortunate, but if you really look at it the two things are totally unrelated.”
