A broken stall door and misplaced trash occurred at Owl’s Nest 5.
The dumping of personal trash occurred in the bathrooms and the broken door happened in the upstairs women’s bathroom.
According to an email sent to residents by Community Director Marco Pazmiño, students are already being charged for the dumping of trash. Regarding the broken door, “If no one comes forward, then everyone will be charged for the repair,” the email stated.
The email further states, “If vandalism continues to occur in this space, then we will no longer be able to use the upstairs bathroom for our needs.”
Assistant Director of Community Living Katherine Bain said it is important for students to take out their trash, even if it can be inconvenient.
“We still need students to take responsibility for their trash even when it is cold out … If they continue to leave trash out in the hallways, that could potentially lead to other issues.”
According to Bain, the fine for incorrect trash disposal is 35 dollars per bag, but damage such as the bathroom door will need to be evaluated by the facilities team.
“I think a lot of [the issue] is based on the amount of additional time that facilities have to spend cleaning up or fixing something that typically would not need to be fixed,” Bain said.
Soon after Pazmiño’s email was sent out, a resident of Owl’s Nest 5 taped a note to their fellow residents’ doors asking for accountability.
“If you know who vandalized the door in Owl’s Nest 5 please contact Marco our CD at Marco.Pazmino@keene.edu so that proper action can be taken,” the note stated.
Bain said she wanted students to take accountability rather than just charging the whole building.
“We are really trying to allow for students to come forward and just own up to it and take responsibility,” Bain said. “If a student’s putting up signs, that helps us and our team because if the students are trying to hold each other accountable, then it makes it easier for the CA’s and CD’s in that area to hold students accountable.”
According to Bain, although this instance in Owl’s Nest 5 occurred, the rate of vandalism from this academic school year has “actually decreased a lot” and gone down drastically since last year.
Bain said instances such as the one with Owl’s Nest 5, prevent dorms on campus from being safe spaces for students.
“We want to have the building be a safe environment for everyone and also a healthy environment for everyone,” Bain said. “Walking into the building where there’s a lot of trash is not necessarily something that students want to be seeing.”
Anyone with information regarding the vandalism in Owl’s Nest 5 should reach out to Community Living.
Community Director Marco Pazmiño did not respond to requests to comment.
Campus Safety Officer Ian Matheson was not aware of the vandalism and declined to comment.
Nicole Dumont can be contacted at
ndumont@kscequinox.com
