Trash, waste spotted in Cobb Hall this month

Crap happens. In Cobb Residence Hall, it happened this weekend.

Reports emerged of inappropriate behavior including leaving trash bags in the stairwell, flushing down full rolls of toilet paper and placing human waste in public areas of the dorm.

The behavior intentionally violated the living guidelines of the community, according to an email sent by Community Director Keith Jones to third floor residents.

Jones also said if the individuals responsible are not identified, the entire floor could be charged for the cost of cleaning.

“My hope is that we can all agree this behavior will not be tolerated in our community,” Jones said in the email.

“In public areas of residence halls ... the replacement or repair cost of damages are accessed to an individual when responsibility can be determined. However, when individual responsibility for damages cannot be determined, the residents of a floor, suite, wing or entire hall are collectively responsible.”

Rick Bradley, associate director of housing, said most residence halls use the community billing system.

“It’s my understanding there have just been several kind of random things that have happened over the last couple of weeks,” he said in an email.

“Whether it’s the area’s trashed, or bulletin boards are torn down, or even a fire alarm is pulled — things like that have a charge associated with them.”

Bradley said he could not give an estimate on how much the potential cleaning charges would be without knowing how many housekeepers would need to clean the area.

In a separate email to only fourth-floor Cobb residents, resident adviser Christine Allison said she noticed trash bags in the stairwell and bottles of urine in the hallway.

“I’ve heard a report of a staff member finding a sock filled with feces,” she said in the email.

“I don’t think I need to tell you that this is disgusting and also extremely unsafe and unsanitary.”

Allison declined to comment for this story.

Sophomore Jackson Hall said it is common for residents of the third floor to leave trash in the hall and personal items in the bathroom — though he has not personally seen the more extreme examples of uncleanliness.

“For the longest time, someone left a bowl and a plate and a spoon on the countertop, which was disgusting,” he said in a phone interview.

“But no bottles of piss, no. I would’ve made note of that.”

Hall said although he doubts the litter will stop, a floor-wide cleaning charge might be a financial wake-up call for some of Cobb’s residents.

“We’re on a hall full of guys,” he said.

“Not to perpetuate any notion of masculine untidiness, but I believe it’s a bunch of guys who aren’t really conscientious in disposing of their trash in the restrooms. It’s an annoyance, and I think it’s a disrespect to the space we all share.”

The uncleanliness is also disrespectful to University housekeeping staff, Bradley said.

“It causes housekeepers to go and clean up after them. They’re not here to clean up intentional damage or trashing incidents,” he said.

“We expect our residents to do their part as good citizens in a community to take care of the property.”

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