Students have limited access to several classrooms after officials say the rooms were damaged.
Students can no longer access the CTE room, Founders Room and PNC Room on the second floor of Mercy Hall after 6 p.m. According to a university email blast, all second floor Insalaco Hall rooms will be locked at 9 p.m. unless a function is scheduled.
Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Kit Foley said there was damage to a piano and a table in one of the Mercy Hall rooms. The Insalaco rooms were report- edly strewn with trash on multiple occasions, and projection systems showed signs of tampering.
“People were playing with the projection and what happens is that on more than one occasion, there would be a very early meeting or conference the next morning, and in those rooms there is a special way you link the projection system together and people were playing with them and they got all out of whack,” she said.
Foley said she made the decision to limit the rooms’ open hours after talking with the information technology department, campus safety and Sue Helwig, Vice President of University Advancement.
“It’s unfortunate that we had to close them because it is probably only a few people who have done this,” she said. “We’ve always been happy to leave things open as long as they have been respected. But unfortunately, there has been more disrespect of university property.”
Other rooms and buildings on campus are available for study purposes in the evening, Foley said. The Bevevino Library is open until 11 p.m. during the week, and there are certain classrooms that students have access to depending on their class schedules.
Sophomore communications major Courtney Garloff is not upset about the room lock down. Many communications students use one central classroom for their assignments – Mezzanine 5 – so the elimination of the Mercy and Insalaco rooms was not a concern.
If I study outside of my room, I’m usually in the Mez working on a layout or editing,” she said.
Other students say they are impacted by the newly limited access. Senior nursing major Allie Flormann said she used to study in the Insalaco rooms regularly.
“I would be in there until two in the morning sometimes so I can understand if people are upset.”