Student leaders of various student organizations purged their unwanted materials from storage within Jacobus Hall, this past Wednesday, as part of an event hosted by the Student Government Association and the Office of Student Life called the “Jacobus Purge.”
The Jacobus Purge, which was playfully named after the blockbuster film enterprise called The Purge, was the first of several events to empty out Jacobus Hall in preparation for its demolition. The demolition of Jacobus Hall is slated to occur in early 2019, making way for the new University Center and student housing that will replace Jacobus and Hayden Halls by August 2021. “I’m glad that this building is going because it’s a deathtrap,” said Mark Matthews, who was purging unwanted materials in the Alpha Phi Omega office. “But you know, through adversity to the stars — we’re losing this building for something better.”
At the Purge, students had to determine which of their materials stored in Jacobus could be temporarily kept in storage or immediately discarded. Nearly all organizations with storage in Jacobus Hall cleared out their unwanted materials, and massive bags of garbage quickly piled up in the second-floor hallway.
While sorting through her organization’s storage bin, Kaitlyn Zak, president of SAVE, said, “[The Jacobus Purge] is affecting us in a good way, because this room right now is a mess,” referring to the room in Jacobus across from The Stute’s office that is used for storage for several student organizations.
Prior to the Purge, this specific room had a hoard of unclaimed materials, including a broken Canon imageRUNNER 5000 printer, a trophy from the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a six-foot cockroach costume made of polyester, twenty Sterno cans, outdated RedShift magazines, and approximately $2,000 worth of printer ink. However, after the Purge, the room somehow accrued more junk than before, keeping most of the aforementioned material and producing new boxes of clutter.
“Honestly, it’s anarchy,” said Dakota Van Deursen, Vice President of Student Interests. “But the anarchy is fine. I’m glad that organizations showed up before their specified times. I’m not happy with the amount of trash, but I am happy with the amount of stuff that organizations are willing to let go.”
The garbage bags, full of trash, sat in the hallway overnight and continue to pollute the Jacobus hallway this morning. Indeed, the many, many garbage bags are still there.
“The event seemed to go well!” Sara Klein, Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs, told The Stute in an email. “Of course there are still plenty of items left to be sorted through, but it was a great start and motivated many groups to begin the process.”
The next stage to clear out Jacobus Hall will occur on December 12 and 13, which is during finals period, in an event hosted by the SGA called “Storage Wars: Jacobus Edition.”
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