Between the holes in the drywall, black marks on the walls, cracks in the ceiling tiles and writing on the walls, students have left their mark on the residence halls this year.

Mike G’Sell, director of Building Services, explained that recent renovations make the damages all the more noticeable.

“With the recent renovations, we now know when there’s damage,” said G’Sell. “While before we may have been able to forgive certain damage, we want to keep these rooms in excellent condition for future students.”

Various residence halls have been cited for damage done in the halls, in the lobbies, or in individual rooms. The damages range in nature and cost.

The sixth floor of DeMattias Hall, home to members of the Pi Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Phi and Phi Delta Theta fraternities, has been charged with more than $3,600 in damages primarily resulting from the wear and tear on the walls requiring a new paint job.

One problem arising from the damage is the question of who is going to pay for it. As it stands now, the cost can be divided among all the residents of the floor, or the hall coordinator can call a meeting for the residents involved to decide who is responsible.

All of the students living in Fusz Hall will be receiving bills this week to cover the cost of damages done to the hall since the beginning of the school year.

Director of Residence Life Leonard Jones said that fairness is a major concern.

“It just doesn’t seem right for a student who wasn’t involved in the situation to have to pay for something another student did,” said Jones.

Jones said that students who know of the source of a damage problem should go to the coordinator of the residence hall.

Hoping to help the students take responsibility for their own residence hall, Luke Latour, Community Development Coordinator for DeMattias, spoke with the sixth floor residents who have decided to clean the walls themselves to cut down the charges.

“It sends an important message that these residence halls are your home and we all need to take responsibility for them,” Latour said.

In an attempt to be active, Jones presented a plan to the Residence Hall Association last week which would have the hall coordinator, someone from Facilities Services, a student representative and a building manager inspect the area twice a week.

“Again, because we want to be fair to all the residents and because we want to maintain the quality of the rooms, we’d like to figure out something we can do before the damage actually occurs,” Jones said.