Ongoing vandalism in the bathrooms of Burton Hall has prompted an investigation by Public Safety and Residential Life. Since the beginning of this semester, vomit, feces and used tampons have been left in the second-floor Burton bathrooms on a near daily basis. Burton is an upperclassmen living hall, with 15 to 20 residents sharing four bathrooms on each floor. The residence hall is home to special interest living groups Greenspace, on Burton 1, and Tiernan Project, on Burton 2.
The vandalism began during the first days of the semester when vomit was found in the shower stalls of the girls’ bathrooms. Residents alerted Burton 2 RA and sophomore Emma Bowden, who contacted ResLife and Environmental Services Workers (ESW) to remove the vomit. As the semester went on, vomit was found in the showers at least once every day and sometimes as often as four or five times a day.
At first, Bowden and her supervisors in ResLife were concerned that the vomit might have been left by a resident suffering from bulimia. Bowden began reaching out to residents at hall meetings, offering help with eating disorders for any students who might be suffering.
“We involved UCC and described the behaviors to them,” Director of Residential Life Laurel Contomanolis said. Vomiting in the shower is a known symptom of bulimia, as those suffering from the disorder often attempt to mask the sound of their vomiting. However, it became clear that a student with bulimia was not responsible.
Other Burton residents began to find vomit left in bags in the hallways, or deposited in trash cans in the floor lounge.Contomanolis also noted that some of the “vomit” may simply have been food waste that was dumped in the shower.
Later in February, residents of Burton 2 began to find used tampons duct-taped to the bathroom stalls. At this point, ResLife became certain that the vandalism was intentional. By the end of February, the vomit and tampons had disappeared from the bathrooms and had been replaced by feces left on the bathroom floor.
As part of an effort to curtail the vandalism, ResLife organized 24-hour patrols by RAs in Burton.
RAs from all buildings on the Residential Quad began making rounds of Burton 2, checking the bathrooms on an hourly basis in the weeks leading up to spring break. Finally, beginning on March 6, Burton ID card access was restricted to residents of the building. Bowden said that if it does not seem to help, the building might be reopened to all students.
Bowden noted that there was no vandalism over spring break or until March 18th, when tampons were again found taped to the bathroom stalls. On March 22 and March 23, feces were found in the bathroom.
When asked about the punishment for the culprits, Contomanolis said that the culprits would be immediately and permanently banned from University housing, and that their ID card access to University buildings would likely be revoked as well. The suspects would also undergo a conduct investigation and could be expelled for hazing, and would be expected to pay for all costs that ResLife has accrued over the course of the semester.
ESW workers have been called several times after regular hours to deal with the biohazard caused by feces or vomit in the bathrooms.
“It’s been a terrible, terrible burden on [ESW workers],” Bowden said, adding, “I think the most frustrating thing for my residents is that it’s been going on for so long.”
Passanisi is a member
of the class of 2017.
