Vandalism at its worst Student accountability Public Saftey M.I.A.

KELLIE BELMONTE STAFF WRITER KRB722@CABRINI EDU

As college students, we are expected to conduct ourselves in a mature manner. We are here, basically living on our own, in an effort to prove that we are growing up, maturing, and becoming responsible adults. However, it seems that for the students of Cabrini College, this is NOT the case.

Afew days ago, there was severe damage done to our new SETbuilding. First, lets keep in mind that this was a brand-new building put on this campus for us, to accommodate our academic needs. Apparently, someone had smashed several air vents, which were to be used in disposing unclean air from experiments. It was also determined that someone had supposedly stood at the top of stairs and dumped a huge bucket of some kind of roofing tar, in the process, destroying the walls and floors. The person or persons who have committed these crimes is still unknown.

Some people think that it is easy to blame public safety for this incident for not patrolling the area and providing enough security for the building. But how can we honestly expect public safety to be patrolling every building at every hour on campus, when they shouldn’t even have to be worrying about such delinquent behavior because, as I said, we’re supposed to be maturing adults in college.

And why should public safety be blamed when we, as students, are supposed to be the ones who are growing up and discontinuing our immature behavior This is clearly the obvious and stupid wrongdoing of students here at Cabrini whose idea of fun is damaging their schools property doesn’t that sound smart?

To blame anyone else for some childish ridiculous pranks is absurdity These people need to grow up and get a life. Now there may be up to a $12,000 bill that someone is going to need to pay. This matter is so serious that the school has even gotten the police involved. If we don’ find the real criminal, who’s to say that we won’t be dealt this enormous bill.

Cabrini is now taking new approaches in holding the students of Cabrini College accountable for their actions. Because of the severe damage to many of the buildings, we as the students will be fined for other people’s actions because no one will hold each other responsible for what they’ve been doing.

This year, in the New Residence Hall alone, there may potentially be up to $7,000 worth of damages. And because no one wants to take any responsibility for these damages, everyone is going to be forced to pay some part of them.

It’s really a shame that the people on this campus can’t be honest. Think about it. Everyone should remember that these are our supposed “friends” who are damaging this school and our friends don’t seem to mind the fact that we are going to have to pay for this as well.

People really enjoy complaining about the high amount of fines that we will have to pay But, if anyone wants to change this, then we need to start holding our peers accountable for their acts of vandalism or else we will all be forced to pay the price.

To give a personal example, I had a friend up for the day visiting me. I didn’t find out until after he left that he had written graffiti on the walls and ceilings in my bathroom. When I did find out, I made a point to go to my RA and admit that it was my friend who did it. Now everyone else won’t be charged with the money that will be spent fixing up the bathroom. I held myself accountable and I held my friend accountable.

LAURA VANDE PETTE STAFF WRITER LCV722@CABRINI EDU

According to Cabrini’s website, “Campus security is monitored around the clock by the public safety director, lieutenant, sergeant and 20 highly trained public safety officers to ensure the protection oflife and property, and to encourage a shared responsibility for the protection and safety of the individual and the community.”

This must be a joke.

Last week, vandals, who have not yet been identified, broke into the Science Education and Technology building, splattering paint and tar across cabinets and other equipment causing $12,000 in damages.

VI do not agree with the behavior of the vandals and I do believe they should be punished for spoiling Cabrini students’ clean record. Their behavior shines a dark light on good students.

SEveryone can agree that the vandals’behavior was immature but I also believe that such behavior may have been prevented or at least stopped in midaction had public safety been doing their job to the best of their ability.

This is not the first time public safety has not lived up to the above job-description. There have been countless times when students have called public safety during early-morning hours and have complained of extreme noise and loud will come to the residence hall and simply ask the party-going residents to “quiet down,” and then they’ll share a laugh. The officer will drive off only to leave the party just as loud as before the complaint-call. With this type of occurrence happening more and more often, I am not at all surprised that such extensive damage was done to the SET building.

If public safety claims to monitor the campus’s security around the clock, then why were the vandals not caught in midaction? It seems to me that if the public safety jeeps were patrolling the campus, they would have seen a disturbance as they traveled down the road that winds in front of Grace Hall and next to the SETbuilding construction area.

Where were the public safety jeeps?

Public safety officers seem to pick and choose what phone call they respond to. Such lax behavior will allow future vandalism instances or violent acts to occur on Cabrini’s campus. As a student ambassador at the Office of Admissions, I can attest to their lazy ways first hand.

Last Saturday, before the information session, several other student ambassadors and I were planning on showing the Communication wing in Founder’s Hall to families during the tour. Another ambassador called public safety to request that the doors be unlocked in the wing. Instead of doing so, the officer simply punched in the ambassador ’s student ID number to allow it to open the doors. Such a simple request could not be done.

This is a perfect example of the lazy ways that plague public . If the officers do not begin to take the above jobdescription seriously, then such destructive acts of vandalism

The vandals who damaged the multi-million dollar, state-ofbuilding are at fault and their extreme immaturity is embarrassing. Even more embarrassing is attempting to explain the SETvandalism to prospective students and their parents. How do I claim the campus is safe when parents are reading about the SETvandalism in the college’s newspaper?

Public safety has become an embarrassment to Cabrini College.

If extreme vandalism can happen, what is next?