ResLife will soon unlock two of the private bathrooms on the fourth floor in Wessel after they were previously locked because someone apparently urinated in the trash cans.

Brandon Reynolds, resident director of Wessel Hall, said the issue began when HES facilities management workers said they had to remove trash containing urine from private bathrooms 480 and 480A. Reynolds said he thought it might have been a one-time prank, but he continued to receive reports from HES, so he sent an email to the residents of the hall, which ranges from rooms 450-498.

“Someone in your hall has been urinating in the trash cans in private bathrooms 480 and 480A,” Reynolds’s email said. “Not only is this behavior against university housing policy but it is illegal as well. This classifies as vandalism and if it continues and you are caught could result in, not only expulsion from the university, but your arrest and a mark on your permanent record as well.”

Reynolds said he hopes his email conveyed that ResLife is taking the situation seriously.

“I don’t know if the person who was doing it hadn’t really thought through the fact that people are actually gonna have to take that trash out, and just thought they were being funny,” Reynolds said. “But that was our big concern, that [HES works] really hard for us and do a lot for our buildings to keep them clean, and it’s a great amount of disrespect to make them have to deal with something like that. We were really just trying to look out for them, but also, that’s an unreasonable experience for the rest of our students to have to be undergoing, too.”

No students have come forward or provided any information about the situation, Reynolds said.

“We don’t really know if it’s guys from this hallway or this hallway, but it’s one of them, most likely,” Reynolds said. “Now, guys have access to any guy Hall, and so it could have been a guy from another floor coming and doing it, but those are the two.”

While the staff tried to figure out who it was, Reynolds said it was difficult to track down because the bathrooms are private.

“The private bathrooms make it a little easier because you lock yourself in there and not worry about getting caught by a student or anything else,” Reynolds said. “I think maybe this exact situation is a little unique, but there’s been stuff like this that happened throughout guys’ dorms.”

Students discussed the issue and shared Reynolds’s email on social media platforms such as Fizz, an anonymous social media app. One post shared a screenshot of the email and said, “We have a monster in our midst.”

The Optimist contacted residents of Wessel to get students’ perspectives, but was unable to gain any information. Reynolds said some of the residents did not know about the issue until he sent the email out.

“It seemed like a lot of guys on the fourth floor didn’t even know it was going on,” Reynolds said, “and were kind of shocked when they heard the news, which I figured some of them would be, but not as many as there were.”

Reynolds emphasized the importance of HES and their work in maintaining the building. He also highlighted the consequences for students’ actions.

“If you go and do something like this in the real world, you can get in real trouble for it,” Reynolds said. “If you keep doing it here, you can get in real trouble for it. We were kind of trying to give a period of grace, where we say, ‘Hey, learn your lesson and move on.’ Hopefully that happens.”

The bathrooms will be unlocked on Monday to see if the issue continues, Reynolds said.