It’s become somewhat of a norm for Kiewit Residence Hall’s Resident Director Mandi Hulme to expect a few pranks, shenanigans and tomfoolery from her new group of freshman residents each year. Generally things like “tee-peeing” rooms or ‘borrowing’ furniture from the common room will occur within the residence hall, but a string of unnecessary vandalism acts throughout this school year has Hulme and her staff scratching their heads.

“The vandalism in Kiewit this year has been excessive,” Hulme said. “I believe some of it may just be pranks gone wrong, however, some of it has been blatant misuse and disrespect for the facility.”

Much of the vandalism has gone on in the Kiewit restrooms, where stall doors have been bent over completely. Hulme also mentioned that they’ve seen elevator panels ripped from the walls four times total on two different floors.

“[It’s] unfortunate in that much of the vandalism is occurring in restrooms where we cannot and will not put security cameras up for privacy reasons,” Hulme said.

Fourth floor resident Alex Olsen said he agreed that much of the damage has been unnecessary, and he didn’t see why it was occurring.

“It’s not like it’s a funny prank or anything like that,” Olsen said. “It just seems like people are breaking things for the heck of it. If it were normal playful acts that were funny and easy to clean up it wouldn’t be a problem. Things being broke for no reason is just kind of silly if you ask me.”

The Kiewit Residence Hall Council has counteracted the damage by sponsoring a week-long event last month that coupled a creative marketing campaign about vandalism with stress relieving activities, which they called “Peace, Love and Kiewit.” In addition, Hulme and the other RAs have frequently asked residents to keep a watchful eye on individuals on their floors who are not escorted by a resident of that floor.

“My hope with this effort is to get the students to understand that it is everyone’s problem to fix; it’s not just mine and the RAs’ responsibility,” Hulme said.

She and the other RAs believe their efforts are beginning to work as several community members came forward to report an incident a month ago. They were able to determine who was responsible for the act and take appropriate measures for the perpetrators. Unfortunately, since the acts have been occurring all year, residents of Kiewit will have some extra funds owed to been a joy to work with, and I hope they Residence Life when they move out in May in know that while the damages and vandalism order to fix some damage.

Despite the vandalism, Hulme was quick to point out that this group of Kiewit Freshman has been a great group and extremely fun to work with.

“Overall, this group of freshman have are perplexing to me, I know that it does not completely define them—they are a good bunch,” Hulme said.