Staff Editorial: Let’s Try Giving and Not Taking

By The Tower Staff

This past week, The Tower was tagged in a video on Twitter showing a college-aged male steal a sign from the front yard of a Brookland resident on 7th Street just off campus. The tweet containing the video reads “Can you say entitled? These Catholic University(?) students stole this sign from my yard near campus. She says, “I want that”, he takes it.” Although the residential security footage cannot confirm the identities of the four young people walking by on the video, it seems reasonable to assume that there’s a solid chance they were students at Catholic. The 7th Street resident has undoubtedly had interactions with Catholic students due to his property’s proximity to campus, and anyone with experience walking to off-campus house parties would watch the video and agree that it was likely a handful of students doing just the same.

Whether these four young people were on their way to or from a house party, it does not diminish anything from the rude and unnecessary act of the person who ripped the sign out of the ground. The girl he is walking with points at a sign in the yard and says “Can I have that?” and the guy goes and grabs it up out of the ground, all right in front the resident’s porch. The young man and woman following behind seem to just cheer and laugh about the quick incident, and their journey goes on into the night. As the tweet suggests, it is an entitled action! This is a little more than grabbing a banana on the way out of the Student Restaurant, or even snatching some of the Pryzbyla’s salt and pepper dispensers for one’s personal use. The sign uprooted out of the ground was someone’s property, and we would venture a guess that the guy was not reclaiming stolen goods here. The video, while not disgusting or graphic to watch, was a bit embarrassing to see someone’s night ruined by what were likely some CUA students. This display of arrogance and entitlement is a bad visual, and it becomes even worse when it affects the community outside of Catholic’s campus.

For many upperclassmen who live in the Monroe Street apartments or nearby houses in the area, Brookland is actually home. It also serves as a home to thousands more in the neighborhood, and CUA students need to be respectful in this community. Brookland residents likely don’t need a reminder, but most should understand that parties happen in an area just off-campus, and many are very tolerant of that reality. But incidents like this caught on security footage cross a line of basic respect and just aren’t cool by any standards. This is not representative of how Catholic University students act in the community, as a quick Google search would lead to examples of hundreds of students doing good in school-wide days of service during the year. But the example stands out as a reminder for students to consider their actions as they leave campus.