Photo by Megan MacQuarrie '19
Stephens’s door was egged in an act of vandalism the afternoon of Nov. 28. Stephens was not home at the time.
BY NICOLE VILLACRÉS ’18
The campus police received a report of vandalism at acting President Sonya Stephens’s house at 2:26 p.m., on Nov. 28. Officers noted someone had egged the front door and they called facilities management to have it cleaned.
The door did not sustain any damage, and the President was not home, according to deputy chief Barbara Arrighi. Campus police does not know who committed the act because there were no witnesses nor nearby surveillance cameras and message left. No one has ever egged the president’s house before, according to Arrighi.
If the perpetrator is a student, the office of academic deans decides the punishment, since it is a “serious honor code violation,” said Arrighi. Campus police is monitoring the house and if the offense is repeated, it will be investigated more seriously.
Arrighi believes the perpetrators could have been teenage kids, not Mount Holyoke students. She said that she sees egg throwing as a cowardly act, which causes property damage but accomplishes nothing else. Among possible forms of damage caused, eggshells can chip paint and egg whites can degrade certain types of paint.
The motivations behind the egging remain unknown. Massachusetts law categorizes egging as a form of vandalism punishable as a criminal misdemeanor, generally punishable by fine or incarceration.