Every student at Montclair State University knows there are two types of classes one can experience throughout their time here. There are those that are interactive, where students are encouraged to collaborate with each other on projects, and there are others that are very lecture heavy.
Unfortunately, many of us have been stuck in one of those two-and-a-half hour lectures with no breaks, and some students tend to get comfortable and make themselves at home.
While feeling comfortable is important during class, some students take it to the extreme by putting their feet up on tables and leaning back in their chairs. This is not only disrespectful to the instructor and other students in the room, but it is also dangerous because the chair and table could break and the student could get injured.
This is probably one of the main reasons that many of the plastic chairs in the classrooms of University Hall are broken, because of some students’ negligence to take care and respect school property.
Students don’t need to be physics majors to understand the concept of weight distribution and that some chairs are meant to be used in a certain way. As a result of this ongoing trend, many students are left without a safe seat.
While chairs breaking in classrooms are not always purposeful, there has also been graffiti and other forms of vandalism found around campus. There is graffiti even on the side of the buildings, including an illustration on the roof of Schmidt Hall, which was removed, but an almost identical one still remains on the bridge connecting Clove Road and Yogi Berra Drive.
The ID scanner to enter William Carlos Williams Hall is replaced after original is destroyed.
Mackenzie Robertson | The Montclarion
The problem also expands to further than just the main campus, with those who live in residence halls on campus seeing their share of careless and reckless damages.
Community damage in your dorm… now everyone has to pay #montclairprobs
— Montclair Problems (@montclairprobs) November 27, 2011
Every student who lives on campus is very familiar with the monthly emails sent from Residence Life about the monthly damages caused in each building. These offenses can include broken blinds, light fixtures and bulbs, stolen exit signs, graffiti and any other significant damage students may cause.
Along with these emails comes a monthly bill for on-campus residents, which ranges depending on where the damage was caused. For some students, it could be less than a dollar, while for others it could be more than $10.
This puts some accountability on the students and encourages them to take responsibility for their actions. While not every student is responsible for the damage, it emphasizes the importance of reporting any violations.
This type of accountability needs to expand further than just the residence halls, but to the entire campus. This may be hard to monitor, but the school can start by adding an extra fee to student tuition to cover any possible damage.
William Carlos Williams Hall ID scanner is destroyed and replaced.
Mackenzie Robertson | The Montclarion
Tuition at Montclair State is continuing to rise without adding a damage deposit, but it might be a way to signal to students that their negligence affects their entire campus community.
Many students will not agree with the idea of holding every single student responsible for other people’s actions, but there is no real way to catch every single offense on campus.
This is an issue that is commonly overlooked by the campus community and it is unfair that it has gone unnoticed for so long.
We are all impacted by this issue in some form whether we are students who cannot find a seat in our class each week, on-campus residents who can’t open a study room window shade or just someone who walks on campus and sees graffiti on the side of buildings.
As students, all of us spend a lot of money to attend school here and we need to show this place the respect it deserves.
