Weekly Hornet

Issue date: 9/12/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Kent Gordon

Media Credit: Kent Gordon

Media Credit: Kent Gordon

Media Credit: Kent Gordon

Jonnae Ostrom stood among the destroyed remains of a once thriving garden. Shattered pots and bruised plants lay strewn on the ground, tables and chairs were violently knocked over, a window was broken and hours of hard work by horticulture interns were rendered in vain.

On the weekend of August 25, vandals entered the department through a hole in the fencing and ravaged the property. The vandals also stole half the stock of a valuable Orchid Cactus and other plant material. Olstrom, a horticulture intern, made the call to campus safety on Monday, August 27.

The calculated damage, not including lost labor, is an estimated $2,500-$3,000. Every area was affected by this thoughtless criminal act. Wood stakes were uprooted and used to hit hanging plants. Benches full of budding seedlings in controlled climate rooms were overturned. Many rare specimens were torn apart by the stakes or violently stomped on. It was a scene of senseless violence.

"It feels like having your home ransacked when you don't have much money, but you value the things that you have," said Rachel Nossaman, a horticulture work study student.

This incident could not have happened at a more inopportune time. In just a few weeks the Horticulture Department is holding its very popular Fall plant sale, bringing in much needed revenue to support the intern's work. The interns lost a week's worth of work while repotting plants, many of which won't be ready to be sold for the Fall sale.

Morale in the Horticulture Department has also taken a blow from this incident.

"It's frustrating to see your work deliberately destroyed," said Ostrom.

Frustration in the Horticulture Department is compounded by the fact that this is not the first incident of vandalism. The fence protecting the Horticulture facilities was damaged in September 2006 during major pipeline work by contractors. A service request to fix the fence was made, but was not granted at the time. In April, vandals came in through the hole and damaged and stole plant material, though not on the scale of the latest attack.

A security report was filed and another request to repair the damaged fence was submitted, but the work remained undone.

"I'm curious to know, if the vandalism had taken place in the science building or somewhere else, it would have been taken care of right away," said Gina Marzolo, a Horticulture intern.

"It's the maintenance of things that keys off how people respond to their environment," said Kent Gordon, Horticulture Department Coordinator. "Leaving the hole uncovered for four months was a neon sign to the vandals saying come on back."

Maintenance of the horticulture grounds in general has been neglected. It took two years for a handicap ramp to get fixed and two staircases were roped off last year because the wood was rotted.

"We're not asking for the Taj Mahal," said Maxine Barry, a former Horticulture student and current volunteer. "We just want this place to be reasonably taken care of."

The general consensus among the Horticulture students and faculty is that the classroom building needs to be repainted and better lighting installed to deter future intruders.

Despite the recent rash of vandalism, the FC Campus as a whole still remains a safe place for students. "This is one of the safest campuses I've ever worked with," said Emilio Perez, Director of Campus Safety.
In their small corner of the campus, however, the Horticulture interns, staff and instructors will remain vigilant, making do with what they have, while protecting and nurturing their plants.

"Plant folks aren't usually rabble rousers and we like to have faith in human goodness, but the situation has been ignored long enough," Barry said.

Hopefully, the Horticulture department won't stay in obscurity for long. FC President Kathleen Hodge has been receptive to student complaints and the hole in the fence was finally repaired on Monday.

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