Vandals Hit El Camino's Humanities Building
So I spent my Thursday afternoon at El Camino College, first interviewing some students there for a story, then just hunkering down with my laptop to write. Something about the buzz of a campus motivates me and I got things done far more quickly than I ever do at my office.
But I digress.
When I was wandering around deciding where to situate myself, I picked up the current issue of the campus paper, The Union, which, by the way, is written and produced in the most beautiful newsroom I've ever seen, outfitted, as it is, with top-of-the-line, giant, gleaming flat-screen Macs and located in a spacious bottom-floor office of the college's brand-new Humanities building.
Speaking of the Humanities building, which we wrote about when it opened in February (it's the first all-new structure there in about three decades), The Union had a short story reporting that it has already been victimized by vandalism. Apparently a stairwell has already been tagged with graffiti, several brand-new desks have already been scrawled on with markers and a littering problem abounds.
Faculty especially are decrying what they call a lack of respect for the building, and the entire school.
English professor Mimi Ansite told The Union: "...some people don't want to treat the building as a privilege. That's a shame."
Cynthia Silverman, also an English professor, was more direct: "It won't take long for this to look crappy if we don't encourage student responsibility."
I have to say, I'm anti-vandalism overall, for buildings new and old, but this story made me especially sad because the Humanities complex truly is a gorgeous. Here's hoping the offending students tighten it up and keep the facility clean.