If you have ever lived on campus or even just been on a residence floor, you’ll definitely have noticed the various decorations strung up in the hallways of each dorm floor.
Every year, the Resident Educators (REs) choose a theme for their floor(s) to decorate. This year, some of the themes include Van Gogh, Wild West, Hopecore and many more.
However, since the beginning of the semester, students have begun tearing down the decorations that REs – including myself – worked very hard on.
Don’t do this. Not only is it rude to the RE and their residents, but it’s also a bone-headed move.
To the students who respect their REs and the floors’ decorations, thank you. To the students who think it’s funny to tear the decorations down, do better. I will never wrap my head around the need to vandalize.
Just treat your REs and other students with respect. It’s not that difficult to smile and wave, or at least to just keep to yourself and not be destructive. Not to mention, every floor has a working camera.
We know if you tear down decorations or write inappropriate things on the whiteboards or chalk boards of REs and/or other students.
Just because I’m writing about this doesn’t mean all REs share the same point of view. My point of view is one out of 30, but I just have the outlet to provide it.
Maybe the transition to college from high school makes students behave this way, or maybe it’s the conformative nature of humans and peer pressure. Maybe some students are the rudest people on Earth. We don’t know, but we will still give our silent judgement.
Chances are, we REs won’t make a scene about it. We will just do our job and collect your information if we catch you doing it. Regardless, one’s upbringing should not be an excuse for behavior such as this, especially when the university offers so many resources to assist with anything a student might be going through.
If you’re one of those students and you’re reading this, how would you feel if you spent two weeks or more working on decorations – printing them out, cutting them out, gluing them and hanging them up – only for someone to tear it all down?
Chances are, you would not feel good. So why make other REs and residents feel that way?
Essentially, the floor is just as much a resident’s as it is the RE’s. Behaving rudely lowers the morale of not only the RE but their residents as well. Granted, the RE is the one who is in charge of the floor, but we all decorate to make both ourselves and our students feel comfortable and at home.
If you need to vent your frustrations out on something, perhaps consider going to a rage room instead of tearing the head off Chica from Five Nights at Freddy’s in Thayer Hall, knocking down all the sunflowers hanging from the ceiling in Lawrence Hall or ripping down entire bulletin boards.
