Dunster Residents Fined for Room Damages

Every Harvard student knows the rules: Put tape, tacks or nails on dorm room walls at your own risk. But some students came back from intersession to find out just how much a hole in the wall can cost.

Several students in Dunster House were fined upwards of $100 for seemingly minor infractions such as the use of tacks or adhesives on walls and ceilings.

"It's ridiculous," said Kelly E. Hale '01, a Dunster House resident who was fined $300 for placing tape and tacks on the walls of her suite.

In her fifth-floor, two-bedroom suite, Hale pointed to the peeling and chipped paint on her walls and spoke of the cockroaches she and her roommate find almost daily despite the fact that the room was fumigated earlier in the year. Hale said she felt the fines are unfair, given the condition of her suite.

"We're being forced to pay $300 to live with cockroaches," she said.

Joseph E. Subotnik '00 said he was fined $200 for four nails that were in the walls when he moved into his D-entryway suite. Subotnik was fined even more for using non-approved adhesive tabs.

"We went out specifically to get these non-adhesive tabs that wouldn't leave marks," he said. "We paid...$30 [for them], and we were fined $75."

Subotnik said he felt such thorough room inspections amounted to "premeditated punishment".

"This guy totally came in here with the objective of finding something. We're being blamed for things we did not do and that lack of respect...is infuriating," he said.

H. Joseph O'Connor, superintendent of Dunster House, could not be reached for comment.

Superintendents of other Houses were reluctant to say if the Dunster House fines are out of the ordinary.

"It varies from year to year," said Lowell House Superintendent James W. Coveney. "I don't think there is any average amount that students are fined. It depends on what is damaged."

House superintendents are issued guidelines as to how much they can charge students for damages. Missing, disassembled and destroyed furniture carry specific price tags. A range of fines is suggested to atone for illegal tacks, tape and nails.

According to Gene G. Ketelhohn, superintendent for Cabot House, damage costs can range "from as low as $25 up to several hundred dollars."

Ketelhohn said it once cost him $400 to repaint an entire room.

"In the student handbook there's a list of what you can be charged for," he said.

But, he added, students are not warned of what the actual charges could be.

House superintendents said that the fines aren't intended to be punishments.

"These are not fines for misbehaving," said Coveney. "Damages are damages and every bit is costly. Most fines don't even cover the actual cost of repair."

Raneshia L. Smith '01 disagreed. The Dunster House resident was slapped with a $50 fine for a single thumbtack in the wall.

"I could go to Dickson Brothers and get stuff to fix it up for five dollars," she said.