Wed 24 Oct 2007
Thanks to Concerned Father for pointing out that that the our cri du poo has made U.S. News and World Report.
Williams’s War on Errant Poo
Williams College is having an excrement problem, and everyone —- administrators, custodians, students, and the school newspapers’ editorial board —- is begging the putrid perpetrators to stop. Since the beginning of the semester, custodians have executed six “excrement-related bio-cleanups” on campus, the Williams Record reports. And just this past weekend, workers discovered five vomit-soiled toilets, along with a broken urinal and a damaged bathroom mirror. School officials have questioned its students’ “human decency” and worry about their much “abused” custodial staff.
…
The Williams Record has also taken a hard stand against this sloppy bathroom behavior. “The volume and variety of these bio-incidents indicate that this is everyone’s problem. While only a few people may be making the messes, by standing silently on the sidelines, the majority of us are implicitly accepting this behavior. If the only noise the majority of us make about this issue is grumbling after the fact when our houses are slapped with fines, how can we expect change?” Bold words for trying times.
Hah! Comments:
1) No such thing as bad publicity.
2) Note that this item is not from U.S. News itself. This is just a blog, The Paper Trail, maintained by U.S. News. I wouldn’t be surprised if their readership is less than that of EphBlog. Moreover, the overlap of that readership with people whose opinion Williams might care about is certainly smaller than, say, College Confidential. Want to worry about bad publicity? Worry about this thread.
3) I have yet to hear any hard evidence that there is more vomit clean-up and public urination going on this year than in past years. And, I know from experience that just because College officials get in a tizzy over something is not reason enough to conclude that this year is different. Could the Record please do some better reporting on this topic? How many bio-cleanups of what types have there been in the last few years?
4) What makes any of this newsworthy is the poo. But, even here, we have exactly 6 incidents, quite possibly all caused by one individual. (Is there enough genetic information in a poo sample to determine for sure that this is one individual? To determine gender and race? How expensive are such tests?) This is, obviously, a bad thing, but much of the reaction seems overblown. (Still, the topic does now rate its own category at EphBlog.)
UPDATE: By the way, we still need a good nickname for this contretemps. Suggestions? EphPoo? Poo Fighters?
October 24th, 2007 at 8:59 am
IvyGate has condescended to open the gate to cover Williams, too:
Thank God We Don’t Go To Williams
In quiet and bucolic Williamstown, Massachusetts, an epidemic is raging. According to the Williams Record, a truly unprecedented number of Williams students have been dispensing their body glow all around campus:
Since Thursday, custodians found five incidents of vomit outside of toilets, as well as a broken urinal and a damaged bathroom mirror, in the Paresky Center. The weekend before, custodians found excrement smeared across the interior of a stall in the second men’s bathroom in the Log. This incident brings the number of excrement-related bio-cleanups to six for the semester”
The situation has reached such hilarious lows that the main editorial in today’s Record is entitled, “Put feces in the toilet, not our community.”
Though Williams falls outside of IvyGate’s traditional purview, we just couldn’t ignore this. Looks like Williamstown is starting to give New Haven a run for Biggest College Toilet-Town in New England.
October 23, 2007 11:00 AM by Jacob Savage
October 24th, 2007 at 9:05 am
I’m with Dave on this one. Is this really an aberration? I can remember many particularly disgusting incidents in my four years at Williams, and I’d really need to see evidence that the situation is worsening. The issues with feces seem to be the primary cause of the uproar (and rightfully so), but is there really that much that has changed?
Do you know why we have 26 bio-cleanups this year? Because we call them bio-cleanups. At any other school they’d be called an average day’s work for the custodial staff. There’s nothing wrong with paying a person extra for cleaning up a particularly heinous mess, but let’s take the lack of “bio-cleanups” at other schools into proper perspective. We’re not comparing apples to apples here.
October 24th, 2007 at 9:23 am
David’06 -
You may be right, aside from those incidents with feces. For me, the primary issue continues to involve having to pay by/having punishment imposed on individuals who did not do the damage and who don’t know who did, and a secondary but growing concern is the amount of drinking past moderation that seems to be going on. A third little gem is a growing concern about whether the administration is competent to handle the situation (and, by extension, other problems that may arise).
My wife has pointed out that I seem to be fanning the flames, so I’m going to give her back her laptop, go back to helping organize the parents for my step-daughter’s team, and keep away from EphBlog and the whole subject for a while.
I hope that, when I come back, the culprits will have been found and Williams will be putting its energies into beating Amherst.
October 24th, 2007 at 9:40 am
What is it that politicians say about spelling their names correctly?
October 24th, 2007 at 10:30 am
“A third little gem is a growing concern about whether the administration is competent to handle the situation (and, by extension, other problems that may arise).”
Really? Is this issue (which as David has pointed out may possibly be one or two students with poor bathroom habits) really bringing into question the competency of the administration? I doubt it, but if it is, then that’s just crazy. This is one area where the administration naturally has very little ability to quickly and effectively make reasonable changes that will alter student behavior. Students are necessarily given a fair amount of free reign in their private lives. In fact if PARENTS are so concerned about the anti-social behavior of Williams students, perhaps they should look at themselves before blaming Williams.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:32 am
You’re preaching to the choir with me. I still have a bitter taste in my mouth from having to pay for the fact that someone broke the vending machine in Prospect basement twice in the single semester that I lived there. There were a fairly large group of people that would consistently throw parties in the basement, all or most of which would leave nasty messes of spilled beer or other unmentionables on the awesome setup we had there.
Needless to say, I was really pissed when every single resident in the building was held accountable for the drunken assholes who kept on breaking stuff.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Just a little elaboration on the above story: the Prospect vending machine was broken, yes, but it would be more accurately described as “smashed and robbed.” The glass face was obliterated and its contents pilfered the first weekend after it was installed, after efforts by the CC house rep that year Sabrina Wirth had succeeded in getting it installed. Spring of ‘04, I believe, maybe fall. As I recall, its removal was the vending company’s decision, not that anyone was in any position to object.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Spring of the 04-05 school year.
October 24th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
the problem with this publicity is that it may spark a rash of copycat crimes… and then we’ll have to blog about it for years…. not under the title of “poo fighters” but “copycrappers”.
One has to wonder if there are any copycrappers running around now, because of all the press this is getting?
October 24th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Copycatting would be pretty awful.
My guess is that everyone will find a way to tone it down, rather than step it up, this weekend as it is Frosh Family Weekend and there will be lots of parents on campus.I’m thinking Security will be under strict instructions to keep the level of partying down and to do whatever they can to keep sloshed students from going wild.
That may not work if the feces smearer is trying to make a statement of some sort or feels compelled to act out and wants to shock people.
Note to the Development people: have the Paresky, frosh entry, first floor Mission, and other bathrooms parents are likely to use checked regularly all weekend. One shocking scene and the Parents Fund take for the year could plummet.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
“One shocking scene and the Parents Fund take for the year could plummet.”
Exceedingly doubtful.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Parents who have raised the shitters will reward the college for taking them off their hands; parents of all the others are grateful for the overall education afforded their children.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Maybe the Admission Office will think twice about offering places to those with less than “clean” behavioral/disciplinary records, or unexplained gaps in secondary school completion.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
any actual evidence the admissions office doesn’t think twice about that now?
October 24th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Mary Jane Hitler required five years to graduate high school, as did the ED St. Paul’s football recruit whose acceptance was later rescinded.
October 24th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
How are ol’ Mary Jane and her BF? You don’t suppose…
October 24th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Would providing diapers to students as standard issue help?
October 24th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
so our sample is two? yeah…I’m gonna go ahead and say that’s not quite enough evidence.
October 24th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
FWIW, I just passed this one around the interns and young staff here in Nashville.
The poo practice is evidently recognized at MTSU and Auburn. To summarize-quote the women, “I can’t imaging why….” To summarize-quote the guys, “the value is in the smiting,” and “I would do it to a bathroom that had wronged me.”
October 24th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Have to add context: in the other room, interviewing a Hume Fog senior for Bowdoin.
Question: “what are your primary extracurriculars.”
A: “AA.”
Post-interview take-away comment: “It would be interesting to go to College without drinking. You might actually learn something.”
October 24th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
wow
October 24th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Let’s take Williamstown absolutely dry (meaning the prohibition of the manufacture, sale, distribution, dealing, advertising, marketing, merchandising, purchase, barter, exchange, ownership, possession, custody, control, transportation, storage or consumption)!
October 24th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Through our church’s extended youth support network, we talk about this a lot with kids who have alcoholism in their families. From what I can tell, going to college sober is often a difficult and occasionally very lonely thing to try to do, especially on weekend nights(assuming a student wants to be socially engaged during those times as well as during daylight hours and during the week; some sober students seem to give up and withdraw during the heavy drinking hours). I don’t get the impression that most students who don’t drink want to have to restrict their circle of friends and fond acquaintances to those who also don’t drink as that is such a small group in most colleges and as it isn’t very “real world” (plus they’d feel like they were missing out on most of the fun and might be perceived as priggish). It seems to help to identify a few others and to make sure one isn’t walking into a party where one will be the only sober person. (Hanging together with other people who don’t drink doesn’t seem to work very well at many parties where people are drinking; sticking with friends who are moderate drinkers often seems to work better and feels less marginal.)It also usually works to go to parties early, have a good time, and plan to leave a bit early before things get uncomfortable. Another thing that helps is to reach out and invite people to go to the movies, cook dinner, or have some kind of adventure like a treasure hunt where alcohol doesn’t have to play a big role. Arranging those special activities gets tiring. So does being everyone’s first pick for designated driver and feeling responsible for watching out for people who are sick.
I don’t know why I posted this. I guess I was thinking that there might be some friends, parents, or advisors who are searching for how to help a student make it through the maze.
October 24th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Socialization is compromised unless you ingest copious quantities of fermented liquids. Making a fool of yourself qualifies you for tryouts at the next bacchanalian festival.
Going dry would complement global warming. We would all mind the volume of the liquid assets consumed while we toast fewer glasses to conserve what precious drink remains within our grasp. Needless to say, this would compromise our more inspired imbibers whose disciplined and labor intensive libations would curtail ovations on Cole Field.
Ah yes, time out. Need to get a beer.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:54 am
How strangely appropriate: ACE is bringing “Phonte and Big Pooh” to campus for Homecoming …
October 25th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Little Brother is going to Williams? That’s an awesome show, awesome group. Nice pick by ACE
October 25th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Bring back Duke Ellington!