Dorm destruction is just too much

Joe Palmersheim -- Staff Column

I've come to the conclusion that there's too much destruction in my dorm. I came to this realization yesterday when I went to use the bathroom and found that one of the toilets had been filled entirely with shaving cream.

Normally, my first instinct would be to laugh, but not this time. I was not impressed. This act, like a majority of the others, had no point. No statement was being made, nothing was being challenged, no message was being delivered. It was destruction for destruction's sake.

I've seen more things get trashed in my three months here than in all the jobs I've ever worked put together. There is no rhyme or reason to this pattern. Oh wait, I take that back. The pattern is that the freshmen get drunk late at night and break things in the early hours of the morning. Yeah, that sounds right.

I'm tired of walking over broken glass in the morning, seeing trash and broken crap on the floor and coming home to that minty fresh vomit smell that lingers after someone yaks in my wing of the dorm. Every fire extinguisher on my floor has broken glass and it's broken just for the sake of being broken. And yet I hear people on the elevators complain about what a pisshole Sherburne is.

Well, with idiots like this walking around, it's no wonder why. Does anyone really LIKE to live in a place with all of the austere comforts of prison (minus the showers-or at least I would hope)? I didn't think so. So, this next part should be fairly easy to predict.

I wish people would take care of things better, and in due time this might have the effect of having nicer things in the dorms. It makes sense to me - if people weren't so inclined to trash stuff, we would have nicer things.

Here's the other part - who do you think pays for all that broken crap? You and me, Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Tuition-Payer (I bet THAT has never been said before). All of that comes out of our pockets in the form of tuition, and the more stuff that gets broken, the more money we all lose. Sure, it may not be much, but that's not the point.

The point is that this sort of vandalism must stop because it doesn't do any good for anyone. There should also be stiffer penalties for those who get caught in the act, because, let's face it, how hard is it to hear someone in the act of smashing the bricks near the elevators with the metal striking rod for the fire extinguishers?

It's up to those who don't trash their dorms to keep those who do in check, and the dorm floor scuttlebutt keeps us well informed of all perpetrators, doesn't it?

So, for the good of your floor, please don't break things. That doesn't do any good for anyone.

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