Vandals strike school buildings

Large scratch marks decorate a pane of glass looking into room 104 in Highsmith Student Union, one of many acts of vandalism that have occurred around campus since the start of the semester.

"A lot of the vandalism that has been reported has been vulgar words, different people's nicknames like T.R.I.D.E., and then you had the M.O.M.S. and some were just pictures," Detective Sergeant B.J. Bayne said.

Bayne heads the vandalism investigation. According to police reports numerous acts of tagging are showing up.

Glass in Highsmith Student Union, Governors Hall and Founders Hall, as well as a mirror in Highsmith need to be replaced due to the damage sustained from someone carving into the glass.

"Housekeeping has looked for different ways to fix the glass without replacing it since there are kits you can buy to fill in the scratches," Bayne said.

"Apparently it won't work on big surface areas so once you add up the glass in the dorms and Highsmith along with the mirrors in the bathroom in Highsmith, it's gotten pretty expensive."

Current estimates for fixing the damage to the dorms is about $1,000 while the price for the Highsmith could run upward of $5,000 as panes of glass, like the one defaced, cost $4,000 for each pane. Gary Grubbs, a building manager for Highsmith, said the acts of vandalism have continued to pile up.

"The mirror in the men's room, paper towel dispenser in the Highsmith, the scratching into the glass outside of 104, which is the movie room, those are the big ones," Grubbs said. "They also kicked out the vent in the door of the men's room. This happened within two weeks. It seems to be fairly concentrated and fairly accelerating."

The carving in the mirror in Highsmith covers roughly a 3 feet by 3 feet span, which ruins the entire mirror, said Rick Brophy, associate director of the building.

"We have tried cleaning off some of the graffiti. The problem is the surfaces they have written on. Some of the building is made with polished concrete blocks that were specially done for this building and in some cases that is what they have written on," Brophy said. "To remove it we have to sand down the blocks. One of the spots is outside the bike shop if you want to see what it takes to get the graffiti off."

Brophy said the damage is some of the worst vandalism that he has encountered in his 15 years at UNCA.

"It's all happened within the past year and a half," he said. "The building opened in 2004 and we had no issues for the first couple of years and then this. It's why I think it is someone from the community who has got their freedom and is coming up here."

Nothing has been done at this point to replace the damaged mirrors and glass, which concerns some staff, like Meg Dutnell, director of the student union.

"If you leave that kind of stuff it invites more damage because someone else wants to come back and make their statement for whatever reason," Dutnell said.

There is also an increase in tagging around campus. One of the main groups responsible for the tags is a skater group that uses the tag of M.O.M.S Campus police caught the group, however, and do not have a reason to associate them with the current vandalism.

"We have a nice campus, and we pay to keep it nice," Chief Steve Lewis said. "I hope that we can raise awareness that this is going on because with only two or three officers on campus at a time we need the help of the students to catch whoever is doing this."

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