Penn State Police Auxiliary officers have been patrolling the hallways of Beaver Hall because of continuous problems with late night vandalism and will continue until it ceases, a university official said.
Beaver Hall, located in Pollock Halls, has been subject to several different forms of vandalism -- mostly graffiti -- for the past week, said Sean Agnew, area coordinator of Residence Life.
The Office of Residence Life made the decision to bring in the patrolmen in hopes of eliminating the problem, Agnew said.
Police started patrolling the floors of Beaver this past weekend and will keep watch every night this week and will continue "until the behavior stops or there is no need for it," Agnew said.
"There is enough of it to try to find a way to stop it. It's something we're doing as an extra precaution," he said.
Penn State Police did not return calls for comment by press time yesterday.
Though only a few floors have had problems, the auxiliary officers will check every floor as they are walking through to make sure everything is in place, Agnew said.
Most of the vandalism is graffiti on the walls and has been going on at night, when the residence assistants for the building are sleeping, Agnew said.
"RAs can't be up and around all night, so auxiliaries work through at that time," he said. "An extra set of eyes never hurts."
Some students living on floors without problems feel they shouldn't be penalized for the behavior of others by having patrolmen on their floors.
"It should just be for the floors that have had problems," Ali Nantz (freshman-forensic science and chemistry) said.
Other students in Beaver Hall say the vandalism they've seen in the building isn't a serious problem.
"I don't think anything of value has been destroyed. It's just been ripped down posters," Chris Carson (freshman-engineering) said.
Max Amerman (freshman-marketing) believes it's "kind of" an invasion of privacy, he said.
"There's always going to be some vandalism, but not enough for something like this," he said.
Lynn DuBois, associate director of housing, didn't hear about the vandalism, but said room and board could be increased if vandalism becomes a big problem.
"Our room and board fees are based on our costs, so if there were an upturn in vandalism there could be a situation where we had to pay for those costs because we are self-supporting," she said.
