Students revolted over piles of feces found in Quad

Students and Resident Advisors have found piles of what is believed to be human feces on bathroom floors, toilets and showers throughout the Community House section of the Quadrangle. The perpetrator, whom residents have dubbed the "Mad Shitter," has defecated in women's bathrooms in the Ward, Warwick, McIlhenny and Cleeman buildings in the Quad. The most recent instance occurred early Sunday morning, in the female bathroom on the first floor of Ward, Resident Advisor and College junior Rebecca Ullman said last night. Similar incidents occurred in Ullman's hallway last semester. As a result, Residential Maintenance placed locks on the women's bathrooms in the affected hallways. They provided all rooms occupied by females on those hallways with keys. Ullman said Sunday's incident meant the locks might not have helped. The problem happened between four and 10 a.m. Sunday, Ullman said. She said she had been in the bathroom at both of those times. "It wasn't there at four, but it was at 10," she said. "It was in the second stall on the back seat of the toilet? and it was gross." Although Ullman filed an emergency complaint to the front desk of the Quad, the fecal matter was not cleaned up until yesterday morning, when a Residential Maintenance employee came to perform a regular clean-up of the bathroom. Community House's Assistant Dean of Residence Diana Koros said the incidents began in mid-September, and continued, on average once a week, throughout the semester. College and Wharton junior Jon-Paul Momsen, resident advisor for the first floor of Warwick, said similar incidents occurred on his hallway last semester. "There was a point in time when it would happen, be cleaned up, and then happen again right away," he said. "They even stopped cleaning it because it kept happening so much." Momsen said the problem stopped toward the end of the semester. Locks were placed on the bathroom on his hallway as well. Koros said she had no idea who might be responsible for the incidents. "It's a very delicate situation because we're unsure if the person or persons who are doing this are committing a deliberate crime or in need of psychiatric help," Koros said. She added that she has spoken with representatives from Residential Living, Penn Police and University Counseling about the issue. Koros said the fact that the incident has happened since the locks were put into place simply means that the pool of those who might have done it "is narrowed down to those who have access to the keys." But the search is still expected to be difficult, Koros added. The Quad desk is holding one key in its lockout box, Residential Maintenance employees also have keys, and it is also possible that students might have given their keys to an outsider. "It's really peculiar because I thought all our problems were solved [when the locks were placed on the doors]," Ullman said. "My biggest concern is that perhaps there's more to it than vandalism, but it could be an obnoxious person just trying to be funny." College freshman Keri Reese, who lives on the third floor of Warwick, saw feces in the middle of her bathroom floor last November. She said she wished the response had been better. "It's Maintenance's job to keep the bathrooms sanitary to live in," she said. "It was pretty sick and disgusting." Reese also said last semester's problem with lack of ventilation in the bathrooms still exists in her building, and contributed to the smell emanated by the feces.