I step into the stairwell on my way out the door. The steps have become enveloped in a white film and footprints peek their way through. I almost laugh. This is one of the most creative acts of vandalism I’ve seen since living in Dimmitt. It takes a certain level of dedication to steal a fire extinguisher and unleash it on a stairwell. Other people tear down boards and steal signs, but this person really went for it.
I talked to my mom about it later and she was incredulous. How could people be this destructive, childish, and stupid when they’re adults? They have to live here, so they should treat their surroundings with respect, right? Wrong.
That’s the thing, moms of the world, it seems like this behavior is built into college culture by this point. Every month, multiple instances of destruction happen in dorms on this campus and on campuses throughout the U.S.
Madison Schueth, an RA in Dimmitt, has felt the impact of this destructiveness many times. As an RA, she has to pick up any messes she stumbles upon while she’s on duty. And if her bulletin board gets torn down? Suck it up and make another one.
“If it’s a bulletin board, it’s kind of ‘shit out of luck’ you’ve got to redo it. Every bulletin board takes an hour and a half minimum to do. So that is another hour and a half of my time that I have to take to do those,” Madison said.
As she recalled a kitchen fiasco she encountered while on duty, her speech quickened and you could hear the annoyance in her voice. Chairs were tipped over, there were gnawed on chicken bones on the floor, pizza slices strewn around, and ranch thrown at the wall. Because she happened to stumble across this mess, it was her duty to clean it. A 45 minute cleanup task that nobody would ever want to volunteer for.
Although Madison has dealt with these issues for the last two years as an RA, there are people on campus that have had to deal with these problems for a long, long time.
Sheri Hineman, the Director of Student Life, has been working for Morningside College since 2004. She lived in Roadman for her first 6 years and has been in Dimmitt ever since. In her time here, she has run the gamut when it comes to dealing with acts of vandalism. The one that has stuck with her over the years was a night she woke up to three broken vending machines and a cracked pool table.
Although that story was the most outrageous, the stories she can share go on and on. Unfortunately for those that live in dorms, the actions of some can be the consequences of all. When signs, furniture, and other items start to go missing on a consistent basis, that’s where the fines come in.
Sheri starts sending out warning emails when items start to go missing on a regular basis. If the items aren’t returned, the entirety of a dorm can face getting fined.
This is a decision she doesn’t enjoy making, not in the slightest.“I have the dilemma of do I charge the building for the stupidity of probably five people or does the college eat the cost?”
She then has to factor in the cost of fining each individual. Sheri stated, “You start adding administrative costs on the actual billing since somebody has to go through and individually bill 300+ people in Dimmitt for all this damage. Then you add the time it takes for the parent phone calls because they’re mad, the student phone calls because they’re mad, is it worth the $8 per person?”
Sheri has only implemented a dorm-wide fine a few times over the years, but she always receives backlash.
Lindsey Smith, now a senior, said the risk of getting fined is one of the things that made her furious when she lived in Dimmitt her freshmen year.
“I would have knocked on their doors and yelled at them if I knew who they were. It isn’t fair to everyone if you’re going to act like a child,” Lindsey said.
In order to more effectively catch the culprits, Sheri could install more security cameras within the dorms, but that raises even more issues such as invasion of privacy, the cost of buying a mass amount of cameras, the cost of hiring somebody to watch these cameras, and so on.
Even with cameras, catching people can still be hard. The Head of Campus Security, Brett Lyon, said they actually discover most people through word of mouth as opposed to the cameras.
“A lot of times that’s how our investigations go. Somebody hears something or somebody starts talking about something and then we follow those leads. That’s how a lot of our cases are solved,” Brett said.
However, there are still many times when there’s no definitive way to prove who the guilty party is and they get away scot free.
What causes students to be so destructive? Shannon Claxton, one of the psychology professors on campus, said the reason for vandalism stems from a few different causes.
First it starts with social norms. If destructiveness within dorms is seen as fun and as a regular part of dorm life, it becomes a social norm and “once it starts it’s actually hard to stop it,” Shannon said.
Sheri believes that mob mentality helps strengthen these norms.
“It’s a group, it’s not one person that’s going around and ripping down the signs. It’s one kid that comes up with the idea and then you have another kid either egg them on or say ‘Oh yeah, well if you can take that one, I can take this one,’” Sheri said.
Vandalism can also stem from a lack group cohesiveness. If an individual doesn’t feel like they belong within a group, they are more likely to lash out and be destructive within their environment.
Part of it can also be attributed to college students still being teenagers and/or being inspired by a good old dose of “liquid courage.”
Either way, the impact is one that is felt by everybody living within the dorm and is extremely costly.
To break it down, dorm room doors cost $900 a piece, the door knob itself costs $250, clogs can cost anywhere from $100-$1,500 to fix, missing signs over the course of a year cost around $3,000-$4,000, and the list goes on.
Jay Malin, the Physical Plant Director, has to deal with all of these repairs and hates seeing students treat the dorms with disrespect.
“When we see this damage it is extremely upsetting. We look at these facilities as our homes and we wouldn’t go to anyone’s house and do this damage. Those that do this also are not being considerate to everyone else in the facility. In the long run, it hurts everyone at this college. We only have so much money for repairs and if people keep doing this kind of damage, it pulls from the funds that we would use to make the many improvements that are needed in all the facilities,” Jay said.
This kind of behavior isn’t singular to Morningside College, it happens on campuses across the nation.
Sheri said at the University of Minnesota there is a dormitory that receives so much damage that it attracts people with destructive behavior. Maintenance regularly had to be called to this dorm due to lights being ripped down, doors being ripped off of hinges, and so on.
No matter what the reason or how costly and destructive it might be, this behavior is unlikely to go away and will remain a part of college culture.
“The biggest question is why? What would you do if your mother saw this? Or father either one? Do you really think your mom and dad would approve of you doing this at home?” Madison said.
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