At the University of Idaho, the term “Vandal” is used in reference to the student body and its mascot.
Over the weekend, someone took that descriptor to heart a little too much.
According to Journalism and Mass Media Administrative Specialist Diane McGarry, someone tore down a variety of the posters and papers tacked to the wall in the Administration Building Saturday night.
“Vandalize is a little bit of a harsh word,” McGarry said. “What happened on the third floor was that most of the bulletin boards had all of the papers removed from them along with office doors, (which) had office hours signs removed. While annoying, it was relatively minor in the world of vandalism.”
McGarry said on Monday, staff and faculty arrived to find the papers and push pins from the bulletin boards gathered at the base of the hallway stairs.
“I was the first one here. I saw what had happened and I wasn’t sure what had gone on. I started cleaning it up and saw an email that there had been vandalism,” said Omni Francetich, administrative coordinator for the Department of Politics and Philosophy. “At first I was scared that it was targeted to me because I didn’t see any other areas that were messed up, but I was kind of glad to hear that it wasn’t.”
Dianne McGarry | Courtesy
In addition to papers being torn off the surrounding walls, the culprits broke in to Francetich’s office, dumped the mail from the mail room into the hall, messed up the papers on her desk and knocked over the items on her shelf.
According to Francetich, the Department of Politics and Philosophy, History Department, Department of Modern Languages and Cultures and School of Journalism and Mass Media were all affected.
Francetich and McGarry did not know if the culprits have been caught.
“I was a little sad, it just seems like, ‘Why would someone do this?’ It was quite senseless, nobody benefitted from it. Nothing was stolen, it wasn’t anything valuable,” McGarry said. “I thought, ‘Oh, there’s more work I have to do to replace things on bulletin boards,’ but I didn’t think it was a big deal, I wasn’t very reactive.”aMcGarry said she doesn’t think the culprit — or culprits — are dangerous. She said feels that the crime was minor and said she was more sad and worrisome than anything else.