This here, has got to be my favorite way to post. Below you will read a series of emails from the Babson authorities, and at the end, I just can’t take anymore. At the bottom, you shall find my response. From Kevin Tuthill, Area Director

1. September 17, 2007

Dear Coleman Residents, 

Over the past few weekends, Coleman Hall has had a significant amount of damage to the building.  Facilities are diligently working to keep the building clean, but due to chronic vandalism we are forced to take further action.  Over the past few weeks there has been broken doors, broken cabinets, vomit on the floor, numerous purposely clogged toilets, and many other incidents of vandalism.  This behavior is not acceptable and needs to stop immediately.  In order to prevent any more damage to the building we will be authorizing Public Safety to do random walkthroughs of the building during peek times on nights and weekends.  This is not our usual approach to patrolling the building, but due to a general lack of respect for the space that you live, we felt it necessary to add supplemental support.  If the vandalism stops and improvements are made, we will reconsider the decision.  We also want to note that the floors responsible for this vandalism will be charged for the broken items and cleaning unless someone is found responsible.  We encourage all of you to take an active role in making Coleman Hall a great place to live.  Take pride in your building and keep it in good order not only for yourselves but future classes as well.  We work very hard to make Babson a great place to live and ask that you respect that by not vandalizing the residence halls.  If you have any further information on these incidents feel free to see your RA or email us with any concerns, questions, or information.  Thank you very much

2. Monday, September 24th

Hey guys,

As most of you are probably aware, we’ve been having some serious issues in Coleman regarding vandalism and just flat out disrespect for the building.

There is trash in the hallways on the weekends and it doesn’t seem to be because of lack of trash cans.

The bathrooms are continually being vandalized. Toilets are being clogged purposefully with beer cans and the showers are being broken.

You are being charged for these damages and will receive a bill at the end of the year. If you’re causing the damages, stop. It’s not fair to those that have to live here. If you see someone doing something that you’ll probably get charged for, stop them. If you are uncomfortable confronting them, let me know and I’ll figure it out.

In regards to food, we have a common kitchen that you are free to use. If you choose to use it, clean up after yourself.

Don’t throw away food in the sink and leave it there, it’s pretty gross and clogs the sinks.

There have been incidents where food and trash have been disposed of in the hallway. That’s disgusting. Walk 3 feet to the nearest trash can. We’re starting to get roaches because of this problem.

The Facilities workers will not pick up your trash barrels in the hallway. If you leave them in the hallway, they will take them and you will get charged for losing your trash barrel.

Check out the pictures I’ve attached and please just treat the building with respect, it’s your home this year. Don’t do anything here that you wouldn’t do in your own house.

Let me know if you have questions or suggestions,
[RA's Name Removed]

 (These 3 are dated 9/10/07)

(The first from the 23rd and the second from the 24th)

My Response

excuse me, but this is a little ridiculous. I personally feel its outrageous that a different hall in coleman gets trashed almost every weeked, and now every resident is paying for it? I sincerely discourage the use of threats of damage fines and would much rather see the RA go around and write up people for things outside their door or infractions during party hours.

The bathrooms though? Why would residents trash the place they need to go to be clean? It really sucks to walk in to a messy problem where it looks like a lot of people thrashed some place, but doesn’t it seem that one coleman resident throwing a party would be a much more logical assumption when trying to accuse someone? I mean, why would we residents want to destroy our own bathing facilities? Honestly, Kevin and Jess, and all the other RA’s, I feel like in times like this you are now warranted to do the check ups on hallways that you are already responsible for. Why? Not to bust the parties up, not to be a babo informant, but to be simply the one who holds residents accountable for their lifestyles here.

If this were a community living dorm, like O-tower last year (which was basically a war zone every weekend), I’d be ok with splitting the damages with my fellow tower-mates. But this is not a tower. I moved out of the that tower so I wouldn’t have to deal with this again. And now, even with Babo and RA’s supposedly making rounds, they haven’t caught anyone responsible for this? I find that very very very hard to believe. And finally, looking at the list of people that received this email, I wonder why the hell are we getting it. Our wing hasn’t even been that bad except for weekends when they forget to grab the extra 30 gal barrels they leave us. I mean, for christs sake, our hall has even been recycling!

In the end, get off our asses and get off of yours and do a better job policing the dirty areas like you said you would. Please, and thank you.

Bryan “Reverend Esby” Steward

PS:  That ain’t no cockroach.  I don’t know about you readers out there, but I personally don’t know many cockroaches that scurry about in broad daylight, let alone pose for flash photography…