Looking for that extra chair to complete your apartment?
Some students living off campus look no further than the nearest dorm or dining hall to supplement furniture and food shortfalls.
Sarah Siefken, a Weinberg junior, has several bowls from dining halls and a chair from Regenstein Hall of Music in the apartment she shares with three friends. She said it’s more economical for students to “borrow” things from the university.
“I would rather spend money on things that I like, such as fish tanks,” she said. “I feel like (Northwestern) can handle missing a couple bowls if they charge $8 for a meal. I paid for those bowls several times over.”
But other students, like Shaina Rogozen, said they were eager to move off campus — away from the uncomfortable chairs and less-than-mouth-watering dining hall cuisine.
“Most of the people I know wouldn’t take stuff from the dorms. I wouldn’t want to use it longer than I needed to,” said Rogozen, a Weinberg senior. “I moved off campus so I wouldn’t have to be in the dining hall anymore.”
Ethics prevent some, like David Ernst, from nabbing furniture and extra food.
Ernst, a Music junior, furnished his apartment mostly with family furniture. He said he could never steal furniture from NU, but understands if people scoop extra food to take home.
“It seems like the meal service always finds a way to rip you off,” he said. “It’s kind of like (NU) football last year. If they’re going to charge money for a bad product, that’s unethical.”
But Virginia Koch, assistant director of residential life, said stealing from NU only hurts other students.
“The hall governments are the ones who suffer because they have to pay for lost or stolen furniture,” she said. “It means less money for social events.”
Students caught stealing usually are asked to return the items, and a resident assistant might submit a report to Undergraduate Residential Life. Students can be forced to pay restitution, and a record of the theft may be placed in the student’s file in the Office of Student Affairs. The university refers more serious matters to the University Hearing and Appeals System or even files criminal charges, Koch said.
“I think they can find more comfortable furniture at a yard sale or at a secondhand store,” she said. “I’ve never known anybody who loved their chair or couch so much they wanted to steal one.”
But pilfering from NU isn’t limited to students who live off campus.
Norbert Wroblewski, a McCormick junior, lives in Kemper Hall now, but decorated his dorm room last year with several of NU’s items, including a metal rooster sculpture that once resided in Sargent Hall’s dining hall.
Still, he said he doesn’t understand students who steal extra food.
“The food from the dining halls usually sucks, so if you resort to taking that, you must be pretty desperate,” he said. “If they want, they can come find me and I’ll cook for them.”
Reach Yuxing Zheng at [email protected].
