Since the unveiling of the new Humanities Building, most students appear to be grateful, but some have already begun littering and damaging the property.
Writing on desks is the foremost problem professors have had with their students.
“I’ve seen a few tables that have been scribbled on. I caught one student and I made him erase the whole desk,” Anne Cummings, French and Italian professor, said.
?The first incident occurred when a stairwell was vandalized with graffiti, and was quickly cleaned up.
“They try hard to have cleanable materials, but some people don’t want to treat the building as a privilege. That’s a shame,” Mimi Ansite, English professor, said. ?
Professors in the new Humanities Building are trying their best to ensure students are respectable.
“We’re so neurotic up here. We pick up trash because it’s like: ‘This is my new home; how dare you throw trash here,'” Cynthia Silverman, English professor, said. “If that’s going on, that means we instead have to be part of the solution and be aware. It won’t take long for this to look crappy if we don’t encourage student responsibility.”
Many professors are disheartened by the damage inflicted so early in the semester as they are grateful for the new building.
“It makes me sad. We’ve waited so long for this,” Ansite said. “I’d like to think the students are adults and won’t engage in childish behavior.”
?While some professors feel fortunate enough to have not experienced their classrooms being damaged, they have noticed other inappropriate behavior in the Humanities Building.?
“I’ve seen students riding their skateboards and scooters through the halls on the first floor, and when I told them to stop, they just looked at me like I had no right to tell them anything,” Silverman said.
Some professors have observed that poor behavior has been increasing not only in the Humanities Building, but throughout campus as well.
“Littering and that type of behavior is fairly common at El Camino and it demonstrates a lack of respect for the campus,” Dr. Mary Ann Leiby, English professor, said. “I’ve noticed a lot more littering in the parking lots. ”
A concern is that if the behavior continues, more students will participate in that sort of behavior.
“Once people see it occurring, others may follow and the situation will worsen,” Leiby said. ?
Involvement has helped most professors avoid damage to the property, and they encourage others to do the same.
“We walk around a lot to catch students in the act,” Cummings said. “I tell my students that once it’s ruined, it’s ruined. We need to let them know we’re watching, but some (professors) don’t want to.”
If the problem worsens, the division office staff says it will notify everyone of the problem at hand.
“We need to let all the faculty, staff and students know. As a community we need to work together to stop the people who are doing it,” Barbara Jaffe, associate dean of humanities, said.
Students are reminded to take responsibility.
“I told my students: ‘You aren’t wild wolves. You have responsibility,'” Cummings said. “They laughed, but they got it.
