By Henri Gendreau

The start of Reading Days took a destructive turn last Thursday when students broke two large windows in lower Gund Commons, damaged a fire extinguisher box and filing cabinet, overturned furniture and tipped over a portable toilet on North campus.

Although the perpetrators were previously unknown, Dean of Students Hank Toutain sent an email to the campus community on Monday, stating the “students believed to be responsible for the vandalism I reported to you last week have been identified through their own cooperation and information provided by other members of the campus community.”

It is unknown how disciplinary action is currently proceeding.

“It would be inappropriate for me to comment on the statuses of specific student conduct hearings,” Toutain wrote in an email to the Collegian, “but I think I can tell you that the College is following up on the matter according to our stated conduct review policies and procedures.”

The vandalism incident is the most extensive reported this year, and it comes after a rise in reported damages that occurred last year. As recorded in the Summary of College Rules Violations in the 2013 Student Handbook, 22 violations were reported last year, compared to 15 in the 2011-2012 school year and three in the 2010-2011 school year.

Last year, when a string of vandalism included a broken window at the Bookstore, a broken vending machine and other similarly destructive acts, the incidents did not provoke a campus-wide email alerting the community to what had happened.

“My recollection is that a campus-wide announcement about a number of incidents of vandalism last year wasn’t needed in view of extensive coverage of the various incidents in the Collegian,” Toutain said.

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