On Thursday night Feb 13, the Cynic sent a photographer to walk around various UVM dorms to get as many photos as possible of the aftermath of vandalism.

To be honest, we thought this was going to be a shot in the dark. We were doubtful that he would see anything.

But when he came back, we sat at his computer and scrolled through his photos of over 30 missing signs for bathrooms, room numbers and floor numbers, RA boards rearranged to say sexually explicit things like “c**t slop,” penises drawn on various things and ceiling tiles destroyed on the floor.

This level of vandalism was unprecedented.

We are not sure what college fantasy some students in various dorms think they are living, but it’s definitely the wrong one and one that may soon have costs that fall on innocent students.

We need to respect each other’s space and property, and remember that our actions do have consequences.

In college, you have independence that you might not have held before, and an RA is no substitute for a parent. It’s easy to think that you can do whatever you want.

However, if we all did what we wanted without regard to others’ safety, no one would be happy. And no one is happy now.

RAs have to replace the posters that were ripped down, students have to change rooms due to fire damage, and the rest of us are wondering how we can prevent incidents like these from occurring again.

To state the obvious: it’s not cool to destroy someone else’s things.

In addition, all of our actions have consequences, large and small.

Even if you don’t feel them directly, someone will be responsible for fixing your mistake.

In the wake of these vandalism incidents, ResLife has considered reviving an old policy for damage control in residential halls: if vandalism occurs on a floor, they would require everyone on that floor to pay a fine.

Don’t be responsible for your entire floor hating you.