St. Neumann prank not clean fun

By Sam Fran Scavuzzo
Collegian Editor
April 2, 2008

Nearly all of the washing machines in St. Neumann Hall were tipped over in the early hours of St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, causing the facility to be closed until the following Friday and prompting another act of intolerance to be committed.

Although some students righted and used some machines, the room was closed until representatives from the laundry company could inspect the facilities—a request by Physical Facilities. A sign placed on the door to alert students of the closing was vandalized by unknown parties. The graffiti contained derogatory statements targeted at African Americans and women.

Director of Community Standards and Support Mark Badstubner explained the university’s rationale.

“One of the things that is potentially the most damaging in any house is a water leak from the feed lines that go into your washer,” Badstubner said. “Typically, that is full city water pressure. If any one of those lines crack, it leaks and then problems ensue.

“So I believe—even though the machines were functional—they wanted the company to go check on it to make sure there were no inadvertent leaks. Why that took until Friday, I do not know.”

The machines were righted by the company March 21, according to Resident Coordinator of St. Neumann Nathan Slife. The room was opened that day and no fines will be accessed to residents because of the incident, according to Slife.

“None of the machines required fixing or anything like that,” Badstubner said.

The laundry company, Mac-Gray Laundry Services is based in Waltham, Mass., with its closest location in East Brunswick, NJ, according to its Web site.

“Whenever you are dealing with an outside vendor it changes the timeframe of things,” Badstubner said. “There are things La Salle can and should address immediately—that we have some control over. Then there are things we contract out that we have some responsibility for but we don’t have direct control over.”

Despite a pretty cut-and-dry repair by the university and its privately contracted company, several notable events occurred because of the incident.

At the Resident Student Association’s general area meeting March 18, a discussion ensued on a rumor that the laundry room would be closed for two weeks.

RSA President Scott Baietti e-mailed his concerns to Director of Administrative Services Jeffrey Hershberger.

“I—along with the rest of RSA—feel two weeks is too long. Even though St. Basil’s has washers nearby, no one should have to walk out of their areas to do laundry,” Baietti wrote March 19.

Despite several attempts, Hershberger was unavailable for comment.

A meeting called by building Resident Assistants took place in the Neumann common room March 20. Following the meeting, the vandalized sign was found by an RA conducting rounds. The sign was taken down and photographed by La Salle Security and Safety, according to Slife.

Despite two subsequent building meetings and an e-mail from Dean of Students Dr. Joseph J. Cicala to the Leadership Team and POINT members, no perpetrators of the offenses have been found.

Residents of the building were perplexed by the incident.

“It was upsetting. I was glad I did my laundry beforehand,” Linnea Viani, freshman communication major said.

The Neumann incident is not an isolated one. Earlier this semester, a poster of presidential candidate Barack Obama was found with racist remarks written on it. Additionally, white supremacist propaganda slanted against Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was distributed in the Student Union Jan. 22.

“This year, the magnitude of vandalism has certainly stepped up, but I don’t think there’s any particular reason for it,” Baietti said.

Badstubner agreed. Slife offered an optimistic view of the incident.

“It’s unfortunate that these events happened, but I’m impressed with the support of the St. Neumann and other communities,” he said. “It really showed that feelings like these are not appropriate at St. Neumann Hall or at La Salle.”

scavuzzos1@lasalle.edu