An incident of vandalism and property damage at Queens’ College that occurred last Thursday is threatening to cast a pall over next term’s festivities, as college authorities may be planning to respond by banning college entertainment for the first four weeks of Lent term.

Several areas of the Cripps building at Queens' were considerably damaged on the night of Thursday, December 3rd when fire extinguishers were set off and food from student cupboards was used to vandalize gyp rooms. It is unclear what time the incident took place, or who was involved in it. As of Thursday evening, nobody has claimed responsibility. The cost of cleaning up the damage, which includes the possible repainting of a gyp room, may be significant.

The incident itself and the possible plans to ban college entertainment have caused considerable frustration among students. Speaking to Varsity on condition of anonymity, one student said, “my friends and I are very annoyed at the Dean’s plans to cancel College entertainment for the first four weeks of Lent when it’s not even clear at this stage that the perpetrators were actually members of Queens’ College. Every student I’ve talked to has been disgusted by the vandalism.”

The JCR committee is currently trying to mediate between college authorities and the student body. In an e-mail sent to all students, JCR president Emil Hewage encouraged those with any knowledge of the incident to come forward. Hewage has also planned to meet the Dean over the holidays to discuss the issue.

Speaking to Varsity, Hewage said that while he sympathized with the Dean’s position, he disagreed with the approach currently being considered: “The Dean is understandably compelled by his mandate to respond to this incident. However, given the uncertainty over whether there was any JCR, or even Queens’ member, involvement, it is felt that any blanket responses on the part of the College are unlikely to be effective and will purely serve to damage relations between the JCR and SCR.”  

Nevertheless, Hewage said that he was committed to working with the College to help gather more information about the incident. As a gesture of good faith, the JCR Committee has also planned to donate items to the housekeeping department for their Christmas raffle.

The College has yet to finalize and announce its response, which indicates perhaps that a number of possibilities are being considered. The severity of the ban may be lessened if the perpetrators of the incident claim responsibility. However if the proposal is adopted in full it could apply to year dinners and formals as well as bops. As of Thursday evening the Dean of College was not available for comment.

The event is the latest in a series of incidents this term, in which punitive measures taken by the College have been perceived as being heavy-handed. Last month, in a decision that was roundly criticized by the student body, the sports notice outside the college porters’ lodge was taken down due to an allegedly offensive slogan that appeared on it. According to one student, “this seems to be the standard method that Queens’ College authorities fall back on – to punish the undergraduate body as a whole for the actions of a very small minority.”