A student who chose to remain anonymous approached The Pleiad to discuss the campus vandalism after our recent publication. Our source claims to know the individuals who spray-painted the college’s property, Kappa Delta’s house and a student’s vehicle.
The Pleiad: How did you first hear about the vandalism?
Student: I was walking back from the gas station and saw them.
P: OK, so what did you see?
S: People spray-painting on an abandoned church.
P: Do you know who spray-painted Kappa Delta? Are they also responsible for the graffiti on cars, the observatory, sidewalks and a student’s car?
S: Well, I’m assuming because I saw them spray-painting the church, so I’m assuming they spray-painted all of it.
P: How many people did you see?
S: Two people.
P: Do these individuals attend Albion College or do they live in the area?
S: No, they attend Albion College.
P: Why did they use the abbreviation “GDI”? Was that a statement about Greek life on campus?
S: I don’t know, one of the girls is Greek, one of the people is Greek. So I just took it as they were having fun.
P: Do you know why they spray-painted swastikas near the church?
S: I do not know that.
P: How they’re reacting after having vandalized the much property?
S: They think it’s funny still.
P: Do you think they would come forward to campus safety or the police?
S: No.
P: What was their motivation behind all of the damage?
S: I really think it was just having fun. The one response that I heard was “I pay $46,000 a year to go here. I can do what I want.”
P: Why do you think the college is over-reacting to the situation?
S: Yeah, it was graffiti, like, and outside of the swastika that is somewhere, like, there wasn’t anything bad. When I got up Saturday morning all of the graffiti except some of the graffiti on the sidewalk was gone. The college cleaned it up. I think it was just some people having fun, and the college was over-reacted because someone was intoxicated and spray-painted a swastika.
P: Do you have anything else you want to say about why they did it or what you saw?
S: I just, like, I think it looked like it would’ve been fun. It didn’t seem like there was any real harm being done to anything.
P: So if this girl was in a Greek organization, why do you think she was targeting Kappa Delta?
S: I really think it’s because it’s the furthest lodge from campus safety, because all the lodges are right there next to campus safety, and Kappa Delta is not. I think it was just for fun. Like obviously Kappa Delta, the KD girls are going to get mad because somebody vandalized their lodge. I think it was just a joke to make some people angry.
This is a revised version of an article published on Wednesday, April 25. We inadvertently left out a portion of the source’s answer to the question “Why did they use the abbreviation ‘GDI;? Was that a statement about Greek life on campus?” The headline has also been changed. Moreover, the source, who was originally described as an “anonymous student,” is now referred to more accurately as “a student who chose to remain anonymous.” This updated version corrects these errors.
Wow. As a member of the Albion College community this makes me very upset.
First, if you have information on who did this, then you should be going to Campus Safety, not the Pleiad.
Second, I don’t think the College is over-reacting. At the very least the actions of those students have cost quite a bit of money. Irresponsible, senseless children like these are the reason tuition costs 46 grand (which, btw, NO ONE ACTUALLY PAYS!!). The $25 per hour to pay facilities staff to scrub spray paint off of buildings for a day plus the cost of the Campus Safety officers who are still probably putting in time investigating this ridiculous incident and the cost of repairing the damaged college vehicles– all of that costs money! It adds up to significant amounts of money! And instead of the right people paying for it, we all will share the cost of these students “fun” through increased tuition and/or decreased resources.
Why is it that you think this is acceptable behavior? It is not ok to have a couple hundred dollars worth of “fun” and then expect everyone else to pick up the cost.
I certainly hope this casual, “they were just having fun” attitude is not the one most students are adopting. Vandalism of any kind, by any one, is a crime and those responsible should have to face the consequences, regardless of any “message” they were trying to get across. This statement from the previous article was particularly troubling:
“‘If it was one of our students, it was a waste of money, not to mention an embarrassment to the college. If it wasn’t one of our students, then I would want them to know that we’re going to try to catch them.'”
So if they’re a student, you’re more concerned about the monetary cost and embarrassment they caused the college instead of actually trying to catch and punish them for committing a crime? That somehow students are “above” the residents of Albion and deserve protection? That may not be how Mr. Snyder intended that statement to sound, but that’s certainly how I interpreted it. It makes me so sad when hateful acts like this happen at Albion (I certainly remember a few from when I was there) and punishments are just sort of glossed over. Start holding students responsible for their actions; maybe then they won’t act like entitled little pricks who think that an expensive education makes them immune from consequences.