For the past few weeks, students in Walker Hall have noticed posters being vandalized in the elevators.
Genna Parr, religious studies freshman, hung up posters earlier this month to advertise the christian sorority on campus, Kappa Phi, having their spring recruitment week. Within minutes of hanging up the posters in the elevator, she returned to find them pulled down. She then hung them back up, assuming they had just fallen off the wall. She returned later to find them not only pulled off the wall, but torn apart. She did not report the incident, believing it was possibly an isolated occurrence.
“But when my suitmate’s posters were torn down too I said that someone should report it, and someone did,” Parr said. “I think people really just need to grow up, and be mature. Just be kind, there is no need to act like this or do something of this nature.”
Maddie Pivonka, dance freshman and Parr’s suitmate, also had something similar happen to her. After hanging up posters for Gamma Phi Beta’s philanthropy week benefitting ovarian cancer, she returned within mere minutes to find the posters torn in half. She then hung up new posters, only to find them once again ripped apart.
“After it happened the second time, I sent something in the OCU class of 2023 group message asking who was tearing down the posters in Walker, and some more people said the same thing had been happening to them, too,” Pivonka said. “I think that doing this is just really dumb and immature behavior. Tearing them down and ripping them apart was just really ridiculous, in my opinion. We are all adults here, so just make sure to act like it.”
LaVetra Stevenson, Walker Hall residence director, was informed about the issue through one of her resident advisors. After being notified that posters were being messed with, she went to see for herself what was being done to them.
“What I saw was that one of Gamma Phi Beta’s NOCC week posters were slashed through, almost as if someone had taken a knife to the poster, cutting it up,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson said the people who originally hung the posters taped them back together, but they were then destroyed even more. She also said that all of the ruined posters were destroyed in the elevators. Stevenson said she believes the choice to only vandalize the posters in the elevator was intentional, due to there being no security cameras in the elevators to find out who was doing it.
“I would not be surprised if others had been messed with as well” Stevenson said. “After this happened, I sent out an email two days after I saw the poster torn, explaining to everyone that that behavior was not acceptable and was akin to vandalism and what the charge for vandalism is according to our student handbook, so if we were to find out who it was, they would know that they would be charged with vandalism.”
Devin Murphy, Banning and Draper Halls residence director, said something similar happened earlier this year in Banning Hall and said she thinks sometimes people do things like this not with malicious intent, but rather just because of opportunity.
“It may not necessarily be driven by a malicious, intrinsic hate or disagreement with an event or organization, but rather just not recognizing the impact those actions can have. It really does boil down to being respectful of others,” Murphy said. “I just urge students to use their better judgement and recognize the impact you have. And if it wasn’t you, but you witness someone doing it, speak out and say something.”
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