President's Perspective: Vandalism causes problems on and off-campus

Sometimes when I deal with certain issues on campus, I feel that my first reaction is just to shake my head. There are things that come to my office and I just can't believe they are even happening.

Last week I was in a meeting here regarding the vandalism off-campus. The big issues were the tipping of mailboxes, throwing garbage and other things on other people's property. Umm, hello guys, even if you live off-campus, we know you are a Fanshawe student. We still hear about it on-campus.

The first reason I shook my head was because I was a student too, so I can relate to these issues. But, if people threw crap on my lawn, I'd be totally pissed. So it makes me wonder, why would you do it to someone else? In a world where we are recognizing that the environment is an important issue do we still throw things on people's lawns? Plus, what if something you threw hit someone? There could be a serious injury.

The second reason I shook my head was because there is no way that you cannot know that you can get charged for some of these offenses. And sure, laugh when you read this. But it's the law for a reason, and charges do happen. So… it's not really a joke.

My biggest concern hearing that vandalism is such a big issue off-campus is that you are affecting your neighbours and your fellow students. To me, that's completely unfair. And I think we really need to take a step back and recognize why we are here in the first place. I am all one for fun and games, but I try to do it whilst I am not disturbing the peace.

My only advice is to think about who you are affecting, and consider their feelings as you would hope others would consider yours. We are here to have fun, and get an education, but how can you act this way and expect to be taken seriously? The small pranks can only escalade to bigger ones and I wouldn't want to see any of our Fanshawe students make those mistakes.