Riley Board is a news reporter with the Middlebury Campus, where a version of this article was originally published.
MIDDLEBURY — Faced with the sudden reality that their time on campus this semester could well be over, some Middlebury College students spent their last nights before the mandatory coronavirus-related evacuation partying, drinking — and vandalizing the campus and downtown.
Damage included broken glass, stolen signs, strewn garbage, smashed furniture and windows, and items thrown into trees. Facilities staff spent the weekend cleaning up messes across campus.
Middlebury students were required to leave campus by Sunday at 5 p.m. under a plan announced Tuesday to avoid the potential spread of the virus. Remote learning, beginning on March 30, is to remain in effect until further notice. Administrators will reevaluate the new policy during the first two weeks of April.
Tim Parsons, college landscape horticulturist and staff council president, said that two employees generally walk the campus twice a week for two hours to clear the outdoor areas of trash and other hazards. On Thursday and Friday, it took teams of five the entire day.
“There are seniors seeing people maybe for the last time ever, I get it,” Parsons said. “But why take it out on other people here? You’re part of a community.”
On Friday morning, as a group of five landscapers prepared to secure buildings that would be closed to students in the coming weeks, they reflected on spending the last two days walking around the campus picking up broken glass and demolished items.
One worker said he had seen items such fans and microwaves thrown out of windows, and that at least 10 to 15 soap dispensers had been ripped off the walls in residential halls and smashed.
Others expressed concern for dogs and students walking across the campus who could be injured by the shards of glass strewn in the grass and on sidewalks.
Some landscapers had to wrestle bikes, bike racks and other large items down from trees. Traffic signs, some more than a hundred pounds and buried three feet into the ground, were torn out of the earth and discarded, or are missing entirely.
The sign that designates college president Laurie Patton’s parking space was ripped from the ground — and is still missing.
According to custodial supervisor Dan Celik, other residential hall damages included smashed windows in Forrest and Battell halls, a shattered glass door in the Tavern Social House, smashed scaffolding outside Atwater Hall B, broken lights and windows in Chateau, ripped-down hall lights in the Ross complex, a hole smashed in the wall at 48 South Street (KDR House), discharged fire extinguishers in Allen Hall, and other ripped signs and bulletin boards around campus.
The college has not yet assessed the total cost of the destruction. Efforts to obtain comment from town police and the campus public safety office were unsuccessful Sunday evening.
The Public Safety Department said last fall that students could expect to see the installation of stationary security cameras by springtime, in part because of a rise in vandalism.
Damages in residential halls are charged to students based on their location. Outside damages are absorbed by the facilities budget.
Parsons said that the damage in the past few days has been worse than that of a typical Senior Week. He theorizes that Senior Week usually has a series of planned activities that keep students off campus or otherwise busy, which can prevent the kind of chaos that occurred last week.
“[Landscaping staff] would have loved to help students and their families pack up their cars,” Parsons said. “But instead, they spent their time picking up broken glass.”
Damage also extended into the town of Middlebury. Two Brothers Tavern, a restaurant and bar located a short walk from campus, was hosting its weekly Thursday College Night when its sign was partially pulled off and its American flag torn down.
“Small businesses like ours have razor thin profit margins and even less time to pay for and fix such things as those caused by last night’s destructive behavior,” Two Brothers wrote in a Facebook post. “Have a little respect when you are here, at home and everywhere you go in the world.”
According to the Facebook post, Two Brothers is now reevaluating the continuation of College Night come fall.
