You could say the Great Broome Hall we-won’t-vandalize-our-dorm Truce of 2007 collapsed under the weight of just one movement.
“When someone decided to defecate in a dryer, that sent it over the top,” said Rene Coderre, assistant director for facilities of Residential Life.
Between that, lounge vandalism, stolen emergency-exit signs, smashed sinks and “inappropriate” mischief with a fire extinguisher, the 2006-07 academic year has been one of unprecedented damage for the Newing College dorm building, leaving Residential Life with no choice but to bill all the building’s residents $8.27 to pay for the repairs, Coderre said.
An April 17 letter listed the fines each resident would be charged for 29 specific damages, including “Clean vomit on door frame/ 2nd fl.,” “Patch hole in wall/ 1st fl.,” “Replace and clean smashed sink 3rd fl.,” and “Clean urine in elevator.”
And then, of course, there was the gem of the mailing: “Replace dryer in Broome Hall/ Due to feces in dryer.” This was one of two feces-related expenses, and at $4.04 per resident, by far the most costly fix.
The charge letter is the latest in a series of admonitions Broome residents have received from Residential Life, including another letter dated Feb. 13, and several verbal warnings.
But the first letter seems to not have been read, as the vandalism continued. The Broome Hall government held a forum to try and solve the problem the next week, where it was agreed that the building would be placed on a two-week probation in which no disciplinary action would be taken — as long as the vandalism ceased.
That agreement did not work out, Coderre said.
After the incident in the laundry room forced officials to buy a new dryer, Coderre met with Broome Hall’s resident director, Charlie Roberts, to discuss how to deal with the vandalism. Coderre and Roberts concluded it was necessary to divide the cost of the damages between every student in the hall.
Broome has so often been vandalized — in most cases, officials suspect, by its own residents — that in 2005 Binghamton’s New York State University Police hid surveillance cameras inside dummy smoke detectors in an attempt to catch the ruffians in the act. At least one student was arrested, and the cameras were eventually taken down.
The billing has irked some of Broome’s residents, who feel the blame shouldn’t be spread across the entire building’s population.
“It is not fair that people who don’t damage stuff still have to pay for other people’s drunken rampages,” said one Broome resident, Roni Afrat.
Still, Afrat admitted, “Broome is probably the rowdiest of all the buildings on campus.”