This past Saturday night there was an incident at O’Brien Hall at Saint Xavier University.
According to Jason Ortiz, Assistant Director of Residence Life for Quad Halls, someone threw a fire extinguisher through a hallway window on the forth floor of O’Brien Hall between 10 p.m. and 12 midnight on Saturday, January 25.
Currently there are no suspects, but Residence Life hopes to speak to more students to retrieve any information on who broke the window.
There appears to be no indication what caused the incident.
The fire extinguisher could have been thrown because of a fight or simply because of an intoxicated student.
By Sunday, the fire-extinguisher-sized hole in the window had been patched with what looks like tape to slow the cracks that are appearing throughout the window.
“Fixing the window is a top priority of Residence Life,” says Ortiz, “and it should be done within the next few days.”
A majority of O’Brien residents believe that the most logical explanation is that an intoxicated resident, or guest, threw the fire extinguisher.
Their reasoning for this belief is that there is now a leak of cold air in the fourth floor hallway of O’Brien Hall that no sane resident would cause.
The laundry room at the end of the hallway is unavailable to students, because of tape blocking access to the window.
Ortiz said that costs of the damages would be charged to the individual, or group, responsible and disciplinary action will follow.
This disciplinary action will vary because of the person, or groups’, disciplinary record and reason for causing the damage.
If the actions were done under the influence of alcohol or as part of a fight then the action taken by Residence Life may be more severe.
However, if the person responsible cannot be identified then the residents of O’Brien Hall would have to pay for the damages.
According to Residence Life’s handbook, “Damages in the public (formal and lower lounges) and semi-public areas (shower rooms and bathrooms) of the hall are charged to individuals or groups when responsibility can be established.
When the individuals responsible cannot be determined, the entire hall, floor or wing is assessed for repair or replacement costs.
Damage to the hallways, bathrooms, etc. on each floor will be assessed to the residents of that floor. Individual room damage is assessed to one or both roommates.”
An unnamed student at Saint Xavier had this to say, “The person who broke that window was drunk, and I would tell on him before I would pay anything because of him.”
Most residents seem to be sure that a drunk individual did the damage, but the University’s policy on alcohol is very clear.
The Policy reads, “Sale, possession, consumption and service of alcoholic beverages by any person under the age of 21 is prohibited in accordance with Illinois State Law. Possession by any individual of alcoholic beverages in residence halls is prohibited. Students not consuming but in the presence of alcohol are also subject to disciplinary action.”
The lack of enforcement of this policy may be because of lack of security.
Currently there are no cameras in the hallways of O’Brien Hall, but there are cameras on every floor in the main stairwell, on the first floor of the back stairwell and at the main entrance of the building.
Ortiz noted that Residence Life already planned on installing cameras on each floor of O’Brien, so this incident did not effect that decision.
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