An email sent out to the entire student body by Student Association President Justin Wax Jacobs today said that UAlbany could have seen a filled-up fountain before year’s end if this week went on without incident.
Oops.
After today’s campus vandal, who some are calling the Banksy of UAlbany, stenciled protest signs mocking UAlbany’s Social Norms Campaign, Wax Jacobs said the fate of the fountain is more than certainly dry.
Wax Jacobs, who pats himself on the shoulder for fighting for the fountain several times in his email, said the chances of the fountain being turned on after this week were “favorable.”
Here’s part of what Wax Jacobs had to say:
“An email was supposed to be circulated to the student body describing the present situation and the renewed hope in which I had that the prospects of the fountain being turned on was more than favorable,” the email said. “The vandalism that took place on the podium’s columns earlier today has not only reignited a fear within administration officials of a coordinated response by the student body if and when the fountain is turned on, but has seriously called into question the logic of having the fountain turned on at all before construction begins on it.”
The signs that put the knife in the camels back (or however that goes) read “Did you know 99% of UAlbany students were NOT part of the Kegs N’ Eggs riot but were punished for it.”
They were in reaction to the university cancelling the annual springtime tradition on campus called Fountain Day, where students would notoriously get really drunk and throw shoes at each other as the big fountain in the center of campus was turned on.
“I’m very dissapointed,” said Patrick Hill, the man who smokes the pipe and drives the little electric car thing around campus. He said (and it has so become true) that they will have to use pressure cleaners to get the
marks off of the columns.
University Police announced earlier that they will give $1,000 to whoever can positively identify the vandal.
Maybe they’ll start calling him, the Wet Bandit.
The entirety of the email is below:
Dear Students,
Over the last three weeks myself and other student leaders have been working hard in trying to convince the administration to turn the fountain back on for the rest of the semester and especially for spring commencement. Unfortunately, the work in which we put in the last few weeks has been unceremoniously put in jeopardy by the actions of, yet again, a few students.
When the cancellation of fountain day was announced, the Student Association looked to work with administration officials to restructure the event so as allow for there to be a fountain day celebration without running the risk of experiencing another Kegs and Eggs incident. As president, I put forth a couple of plans all of which were summarily dismissed due to the lack of time to implement a number of the provisions of the plan. It became clear that the administration was not budging on the issues of restoring fountain day, so we turned our attention to at least having the fountain turned on for the remainder of the semester. Within the last couple of weeks, I am proud to say that we were able to make headway on the issue as many administrators were amenable to the idea. However, a stipulation of the understanding between the two sides was that the University needed to get through this Sunday without a major incident occurring.
An email was supposed to be circulated to the student body describing the present situation and the renewed hope in which I had that the prospects of the fountain being turned on was more than favorable. The vandalism that took place on the podium’s columns earlier today has not only reignited a fear within administration officials of a coordinated response by the student body if and when the fountain is turned on, but has seriously called into question the logic of having the fountain turned on at all before construction begins on it.
Without the fountain on this campus can seem like a desolate piece of concrete, and during the summer it verges on the point of depressing. In our attempts to turn it on, assurances were made that the majority of the student body was more concerned about having the fountain turned on than participating in rogue fountain days and or defacing and destroying personal and public property. The actions taken by a few this morning have seriously called into doubt the credibility of our statements and assurances, which in turn perpetuates a fear that we have been trying to dissipate. The defacing of property speaks contrary to the message in which we were trying to send to the administration which is, ironically enough, that the majority of the student body shouldn’t have to suffer having the fountain not turned on because of the actions of less than 1% of the entire student body.
If you feel the need to protest the actions taken by the administration, in which you have every right to do, please do so in a peaceful and constructive way. Remember, however, that there are people currently at work behind the scenes who are trying to reach the same goal as you. Actions that can or are perceived to be destructive will work against any progress that has been made. Further destruction and defacing of school property or displays of out of control drunken behavior have the ability to destabilize an already delicate situation. It can cost the entire university the ability to enjoy having water in the fountain as the weather gets warmer, as well as cost seniors the chance of having the fountain on during commencement. Remember, we are currently in this situation because a few students destroyed personal property, defacing school property is not the solution.
Justin Wax Jacobs
President
Student Association
STOP SNITCHING UALBANY
are you on linkedin?