Thief Absconds With Thayer Message Board Pens

Since late Monday night, the building once home to e. e. cummings '15 has had to cope without the writing tool essential for a social dorm.

When residents of Thayer Hall woke up yesterday morning, the message boards on their solid, burgundy doors had been robbed of their pens.

Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley Nathans had no knowledge of who stole the pens, but she clearly disapproved of the heist.

"Pens are not free, quite apart from the annoyance and inconvenience occasioned by their repeated and apparently wholesale removal," she said in an e-mail message.

Noah S. Selsby, a senior proctor in Ivy Yard who first reported the incident to Nathans, said the dorm has been stripped of pens more than once this term.

"[Monday] night, again, a person walked through most of Thayer and removed all the message board pens," he said. "Pens that were tied to doors were cut off and messages were left on some boards which had repeatedly been vandalized in this manner."

He warned that the perpetrator of the theft would face disciplinary reprisals if caught.

"I have discussed the matter with Dean Nathans and she has decided that we send out an e-mail to our entryways in Thayer telling people that the thief runs the risk of both Ad Board and a Room Search," he said in the same message.

Robert T. Dennis '02, a Thayer resident, disapproved of the theft.

"Even if it is a stunt, it just seems at the most basic level violating University policy-stealing from the University and stealing from the students," he said.

After the last raid on pens in the hall, residents tried securing them to their doors. But their crime prevention strategy proved ineffective.

"After the first time they took all the pens from the dorm, a number of us started attaching the pens with strings to message boards--except this time they came and cut all the strings and took the pens," Silas L. Wang '02 said.

Wang said the Thayer-Holworthy Hall rivalry was rumored to have inspired the previous raid but said he doesn't know what the cause is this time.

In the wake of the recent pen pinching, some residents have changed their approach to writing memos.

"I've resorted to sticky notes to leave messages for my roommate," said Carli E. Spina '02.

Wang, however, would not be discouraged, and yesterday got a new marker in Weld basement from Dorm Crew--picking up the pieces and beginning anew.