By Gavin Guffey, Campus News Editor 

Recent vandalism has plagued Xavier’s Justice Hall as dozens of emergency exit signs are being knocked down and broken. The destruction of these signs not only poses potential fines for all residents, but a safety threat among residents of the hall. 

“These signs are emergency exit signs. They are there for an emergency,” Chief of Police Aaron Jones said. “You may never see them, you may never use them, but your roommate or friends down the hall may need that sign some point during an emergency.” 

Jones also highlighted the financial burden that the university takes on to replace these signs, both through purchasing the signs themselves and the time Physical Plant spends installing them. 

“These aren’t cheap,” Jones said. “There’s the cost of buying them, the actual labor cost, the time taken away from other things across campus.” 

The trend of knocking down exit signs began in Justice Hall near the end of the spring semester and was quickly met by university officials with fines and surcharges for residents; this resulted in an immediate drop in vandalism. However, the numbers have crept back up through the first few weeks on campus. 

“At this point, over 30 signs have been damaged just these last couple weeks,” Jones said. 

Jones stated that there may have to be additional charges incurred on all students living in the vicinity of damaged exit signs if the issue is not resolved. 

“We don’t want to get to the point where we’re considering a surcharge,” Jones said. 

The vandalism of exit signs also impacts Resident Assistants (RA) in Justice Hall, who must file incident reports each time they encounter a case. 

“In the first week alone, I personally have done six fire exit signs, and that’s just me,” junior exercise science major and Senior RA in Justice Hall Yanis Bengana said. 

Bengana stressed the implications that vandalism can have on safety due to the emergency exit signs running at a higher degree of electricity than other spots. 

“Because they’re always going, they have a lot more power. So, the energy that’s coming out of the wiring can go up to around 400 volts, which we were told can kill someone,” Bengana said.

Bengana strongly supports the implementation of cameras within Justice Hall to prevent more damage from happening.

“The amount of work orders that the RAs are doing is more than enough evidence that we should be getting cameras in,” Bengana said. “I’m 100% for cameras, and a strong push for whoever can make that happen.”

Jones emphasized his request for whoever the culprits are to take accountability for their actions, and to keep everyone’s best interests in mind.

“I want people to do the right thing because it’s the right thing, not because there’s some consequence that’s going to happen from it,” Jones said.