"As Chairs Get Cut Up, UB Tries to Cut Down on Vandalism"

Ask Dave Ballard about community service, and he'll have an answer. Ask him about Greek affairs, the marching band or leadership development, and he'll have an answer.

But ask him why someone would deliberately vandalize five chairs in the Student Union. That one, Ballard would like help answering.

"I just feel bad that somebody would come here and try to destroy things students use on a daily basis," said Ballard, the associate sirector of Student Life. "This was clearly someone who was angry and took out that anger. Someone deliberately cut up this furniture."

The five chairs Ballard refers to, which were vandalized Thursday evening, may have been slashed and cut up for cheap laughs. However, the cost of the crime won't be cheap for Ballard and UB. Each chair cost $500 to $750.

"It's part of the tuition. It's part of the fee. It's part of the taxpayer's money. And because we have to use it for things like this, we're just throwing our money away," said Ballard, who hopes that only the slashed cushions, and not the entire chairs, can be replaced. "In reality, we're all paying for it."

The chairs - which were on the third floor of the Student Union when vandalized - were installed in the summer. All of the furniture throughout the Student Union is less than a year old, but has already seen its share of graffiti and abuse, according to Ballard.

"I think we try to make a real impact on the atmosphere and condition of the building so it's a good place to come to," he said. "And then to have some unknown person arrive and abuse. It's just upsetting to see something like that. All of us spend so much time here, it's really our place."

And it is exactly that idea of UB as "our place" that has many students upset at the amount of vandalism year in and year out.

"I think it would be a much nicer school to go to if it were better taken care of by the students," said Nicole Scharlau, a sophomore architecture major. Scharlau added that while living on South Campus she has seen students not only vandalize school property, but also the personal property of other students.

For other students, vandalism has not been much of an issue.

"I haven't really heard of any occurrences," said Amanda Behrens, a freshman pharmacy major.

But whether students hear about it or not, vandalism continues to be a presence at UB. In the first three weeks of the year, five vandalism cases were reported on campus. Last year, there were a total of 241 cases - right around the annual average, according to John Grela, the director of Public Safety.

"(That number) is a variety of windows broken, furniture damaged," said Grela. "Anything that you think could be broken, we consider that criminal mischief."

Grela added that there is an ongoing investigation for the slashed chairs, but without witnesses to the crime, catching the perpetrator is near impossible.

"(Vandalism) is very difficult to deal with because of the anonymity of those who commit the crime," said Grela. "Unless we catch somebody in the act or have a witness...there's not much we can do."

But that's where Dave Ballard says the students come in.

If there's pressure from fellow students to keep from vandalizing UB, he said, maybe next time someone will think twice about destroying a piece of his or her own home.