Residents of Carle Hall were fined back in January from damages occurring within the residence hall.
The total amount of damages combined across the three floors was anywhere $4,000 and $5,000, Casey Justice, director of transitions and community living, said.
Justice said the fines between the four floors ranged from $65 to $100 per student. However, only three of Carle’s four floors were fined.
Community Living has put in place what they call a “housing administration fee,” which is a non-refundable fee of $200 that would cover damages “with the exception of egregious damages,” for the spring 2023 semester, Justice said.
The usual things that happen within the residence halls, such as vandalism and taking down signs, will be covered by this fee, Justice said.
“When the bill starts to rack up and unfortunately students aren’t coming forward to tell us who’s responsible, then we have to,” Justice said.
According to campus safety logs from the fall 2022 semester, “destruction property” showed up 21 times total out of the 32 total mentions.
Justice said some of the most recurring issues in Carle were the removal of bathroom signs. Around 50 bathroom signs were removed from the residence hall throughout the course of the fall semester.
Broken exit signs were also among the most common acts in Carle, Justice said. As it stands, however, students have to come forward to Community Living to own up to the damage or with information about who caused it.
“I don’t think the majority of our students find that fun or entertaining,” Justice said. Other problems within the residence hall included damaging paper towel and soap dispensers, along with missing shower heads.
“They [students] want to be able to use that facility without worry,” Katherine Potts, assistant director of community living, said. Damages are difficult on the facility teams and the cleaning team as well.
“They [facilities team] have to divert time to get things up and going in some capacity,” Potts said. “They [cleaning team] divert a lot of time too, to get the facilities back in a place where it’s usable.”
First-year Elijah Stephenson was not aware of the fines that were being handed down to Carle residents. He said he was aware of the emails that were sent during the time that most of the damages were occurring but did not know that Community Living followed through with them. He said he thought the damages stopped.
As for how the school could approach finding out who did the damages around the residence hall, Stephenson said, “I think that’s kind of tough. I think the best way is for students to come forward and if you’ve seen anything.”
As for the spring 2023 semester, Stephenson said things seemed to have calmed down in Carle Hall. He said he could only recall one major incident that happened in the building this semester: when the pipe burst earlier this semester, to which Stephenson said he does not think it was intentional.
“Maybe it hasn’t gotten better, but I don’t think it has gotten worse,” Stephenson said. According to Campus Safety logs accurate up until March 30, there have been 13 total mentions of “destruction property.” Eight of those mentions also include Carle Hall.
First-year Fiori Mitchell was not at Keene State for the fall 2022 semester but said it “feels unfair because it’s usually the same people, but no one really knows exactly who it is.”
Mitchell also suggested that students who see anything should report it so that students no longer fined for activities that they did not partake in. She said other than that, she is not sure how to go about it. Mitchell said she was informed about the fines, but is unsure if they were dropped.
Justice said she hopes, with the new renovation to Carle slated to be finished over the summer of 2024, that a lot of the problems Carle sees now might not be happening. She said because of how Carle is laid out and how many students there are per Community Assistant in the building, “it’s primed for a really strong community.”
Tim Bruns can be contacted at
tbruns@kscequinox.com
