There have been incidents of signage stealing and vandalism around Ithaca College’s campus. Exit signs, cones and gender-neutral bathroom signs disappear, and it is left up to the Office of Facilities to replace those and make sure it does not repeat. Unfortunately, the Office of Facilities does not have the power to supervise every sign around the campus, so these incidents keep occurring. On a good note, larceny and criminal mischief reports have been decreasing since Fall 2022, while in Fall 2022, there were 32 larceny and 41 criminal mischief reports and in Spring 2023, there have been only 26 larceny and 16 criminal mischief reports so far. 

The decrease in larceny does not mean that the problems are solved. There are still many occurrences of signage stealing and the Office of Facilities cannot do anything about it except continuously replace the signs. It is up to people who steal the signs to understand that their actions can harm others in various ways. Missing signs can create confusion among people who are trying to get to a particular location, missing cones can create a dangerous situation by allowing someone to enter a location that they should not and, also, it is somewhat insulting toward the workers of the Office of Facilities who try to make the college a welcoming place, yet some people disrespect their efforts by stealing the signs. 

Some students like stealing signs to decorate their rooms. While students may steal signs as a fun activity, their actions still harm someone else, even if the original purpose was not to cause inconvenience. If decorating rooms with signs is enjoyable for students, they can buy signs online instead of stealing. Next time you approach such an activity, ask yourself if it is worth creating trouble for others.