Post Gazette: "Tinkering with a campus tradition is one thing.
Taking a hacksaw to it is another.
At Carnegie Mellon University, sharp words and emotions have surfaced in the days since a group of students apparently did the unthinkable to a landmark known simply as 'the fence.'
3 comments:
While I may not be the most hardcore school spirit filled student in the world, the fact that someone would take a saw to the fence was pretty offensive. The fence is one of the traditions that I really enjoy about CMU. On the other hand, a really wonderful thing that came from this vandalism was the coming together of the student body. There is nothing like the desecration of an esteemed tradition to bring people together. I'm glad that the fence was able to be somewhat repaired, and that it wasn't the end for the fence.
Truthfully I don't think that the fence being chopped apart is that big a deal. The fence and all it's traditions were created because it was vandalized. Back in the day when it separated the campus between men and women, the university decided to take it down to unite the campuses and so the night before they were going to take it down a frat came over and painted it to show their territory and that is how the tradition was born. Who is to say that one type of vandalism is worse then another. Also it looked really cool when they hacked it up and it was easy to fix and you can barley tell it was destroyed, http://boringpittsburgh.com/news/jagoffs-with-hacksaw-cut-the-fence-at-cmu-pics/. I'm not endorsing what they did but I do think that people got a little too angry for what happened.
I don't know why they did it, but I do have a sort of respect for the fact that actually did it. I can't imagine they simply wanted to see the layers. I think they wanted to make a lot of people angry. Which is awesome. In a way. I hope they don't get expelled because Zoe is right, who's to say one type of vandalism is worse than another. Both are just trying to make a statement. I'd love to know why they did it. Their actions will always be remembered and included in the history of the fence and school. If there were to be a documentary on the fence, this would be a very huge and dramatic segment. It was nice to have things shaken up for once on this campus. People here are so afraid to do anything out of line for fear of it effecting their grades or degree. I hope these kids didn't get expelled and that they got what they wanted from their actions.
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