Stop literally and metaphorically breaking our community

As the semester winds down, it’s important to take a step back and recognize how tumultuous of a semester it’s been.

In large part, students deserve acknowledgement for several things, including showing a tremendous amount of strength and courage at the IWL-led protest response to the Pat Hall allegations, being flexible as COVID-19 restrictions were changed or tweaked, raising the campus vaccination rate to 90% and supporting our peers as sporting and arts events returned to welcoming in-person crowds.

However, there’s also been times this semester when our campus community has fallen short of expectations and the standards promoted in our Benedictine values.

A recent email from SJU Vice President Mike Connolly to all SJU students announced that there’s been a major uptick in property destruction across campus this year. This email isn’t the first of the semester on this subject, as students from both campuses have received reports of vandalism across the residence halls and common buildings.

To put it simply, this action has no place on our campuses. Literally tearing our campus apart is juvenile and foolish, and the furthest thing from building community.

Tuition and housing expenses are high enough without accounting for possible fees to cover the destruction. Many people have spent time and energy building and maintaining our campuses, and intentionally damaging public property is disrespectful and wasteful. To pay for the damages, the email from Connolly cited the campus policy that fees will be charged to all floor members, regardless of involvement—a policy that applies to both CSB and SJU students. Making your peers pay for vandalism is selfish. There’s simply no reason for these harmful antics.

Further, there is a general disregard for others’ property on campus. Anecdotally, we’ve found damage to our cars in the parking lots with no notes. We’ve seen clothing in hall laundry rooms left in disarray or ruined. We’ve had friends who hosted parties, then woken up to find that their guests robbed their property. Respect for others entails respecting their belongings, and wanton theft and destruction is a fast way to ruin our sense of community.

We’re seeing a chronic drop in enrollment. Incoming student rates aren’t dismal, but retention rates are, and there’s an increasing likelihood that the CSB/SJU combined enrollment will drop 3,000 students for spring semester. To put that in context, the last time that number fell that low, the year was 1973 and the first cell phone call was being made.

Reading various social media recountings, many students struggle to find a community here. Ruining property certainly won’t help the situation. It’s the responsibility of all students to respect the campuses we have, the belongings of fellow students, and our cherished Benedictine values.