We can agree we pay a lot of money to OCU and we don’t want the university to waste it. But there is one thing students can do to prevent officials from being forced to waste our money.
The university has spent about $350 in the month since Winter Break fixing exit signs in Oklahoma United Methodist Hall. The signs aren’t falling on their own, they have help from students.
See article for more on vandalism in Methodist.
Tim Rhodes, facilities staff member, estimates in his eight years at OCU 200 exit signs have been replaced. At up to $35 a pop that is $7,000 just in exit signs, not including labor.
Sure the university sometimes spends money on silly things, such as watering sidewalks and orange and pink golf carts, but forcing the officials to spend money on more exist signs is on us as students.
Many students complain about the quality of housing. Why would you do something to make your housing situation worse?
Broken exit signs look trashy and make Methodist appear even more run down. More important than appearances, damaged exit signs cause a safety risk. Damaged signs will not point out the nearest exit in cause of an emergency and damaged wiring in signs could become a fire risk.
Damaged exit signs are a building code violation, so they must be repaired as soon as possible after they are discovered. Facilities workers could spend that time fixing other problems in buildings.
There is more to this than the damage caused. Vandalism of any kind shows a lack of respect and a disregard for others. Your actions affect more than yourself. Sure, you want to feel cool about how tall you are by slapping an exit sign, but what good does that accomplish?
The exit signs are the university’s property, not the students. We wouldn’t want someone destroying our property, so stop vandalizing the university’s. It seems like common sense to us.
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