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    olivianewtonjohnHillary Crosley Coker
    11/13/14 4:42pm

    I get that it looks tacky. But, I am seriously, earnestly asking: There are costs associated with cleanup. What are they supposed to do?

    ETA: Of course Columbia needs to address the issue at hand. OF COURSE. I am clearly asking about the clean up situation—they clearly have a policy in place for this (which is how organizers knew they would get a clean up bill after the protest). But what I'm hearing is that Columbia should make an exception in this case because it is a cause that we support. Got it.

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      JosephFinnolivianewtonjohn
      11/13/14 4:45pm

      Charge the people who got the mattresses dirty, of course.

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      bellisimmmaolivianewtonjohn
      11/13/14 4:45pm

      Tuition is ~$50K annually per student. Columbia could proooobably manage the expense on their own.

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    goldenraeHillary Crosley Coker
    11/13/14 4:53pm

    Yes, we should have housekeepers, who are some of the lowest paid workers on any campus, work for free to clean these.

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      concrete_operagoldenrae
      11/13/14 5:03pm

      I don't think the implication was that the housekeepers clean it up for free, I think the reason people are offended is because a university with an incredibly large endowment have chosen to take punitive action against a rape survivor whom they revictimized by finding her rapist (who was also accused of raping two other women) not responsible.

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      goldenraeconcrete_opera
      11/13/14 5:07pm

      And I think that protests about social justice should remember those they impact as well.

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    jlfforalwaysHillary Crosley Coker
    11/13/14 4:33pm

    Dear Columbia administration,

    Hi. You're making yourself look like stupid asses.

    Yours,

    People Who Won't Be Sending Their Kids to Columbia Anymore

    PS. Seriously. Co-signed, your Alumni

    PPS. Wow, must not want all those trustees or new donors, eh?

    **Corrected for PPS mistake. But STILL RIGHT. STUPID MOVE, COLUMBIA.

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      AnonymousCivilPersonjlfforalways
      11/13/14 4:36pm

      PPSS. Wow, must not want all those trustees or new donors, eh?

      I think it would just be PPS for Post Post Script. I don't think you need the second Script.

      Everything else:

      GIF
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      jlfforalwaysAnonymousCivilPerson
      11/13/14 4:39pm

      I was feeling expansive and dramatic when I wrote it. heh heh But, yes, you're right. It should be PPS. Thank you!

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    AnonymousCivilPersonHillary Crosley Coker
    11/13/14 4:32pm

    I am actually a little troubled that it only costs about $17 to clean a mattress. Seems cheap and not clean enough somehow.

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      aisuru113AnonymousCivilPerson
      11/13/14 4:36pm

      I am surprised they only charged a cleaning fee and, you know, not a replacement fee.

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      merchantfanaisuru113
      11/13/14 4:56pm

      I assumed them charged a cleaning fee because a replacement fee would have been less. Those things are usually pretty flimsy.

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    Ari Schwartz: Dark Lord of the SnarkHillary Crosley Coker
    11/13/14 4:55pm

    I dunno about Columbia, but at UCLA they had staff who managed cleanup after events like, say, Beat 'SC Week.

    Doesn't Columbia have people whose job it is to clean shit up? Even then, $471? I know Columbia is relatively "poorer" than its other Ivy brethren, but... WUT.

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      TamTamsAri Schwartz: Dark Lord of the Snark
      11/13/14 8:58pm

      I mean...this wasn't an organized campus event. It was a protest. If you've got a massive campus event like Beat 'SC Week which is organized in part by the school, they are going to have plans to clean up in place.

      Columbia apparently told this group to clean up the mattresses or they'd get charged a fee. Seems reasonable to me. The group of students isn't actually paying for it anyway.

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      Ari Schwartz: Dark Lord of the SnarkTamTams
      11/14/14 1:01pm

      I missed the prior awareness.

      Then yes, I agree with the fee.

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    IknowyouarerightHillary Crosley Coker
    11/13/14 4:58pm

    I'd pay in pennies, and leave them on the President's stoop.

    Or, get all those wonderful caring students, and request a meeting with the administration to change policy. Because although attention-getting, those mattresses don't seem to be helping. Now that unfortunate soul has been raped AND has to pay a fee for it.

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      KaizykatIknowyouareright
      11/13/14 5:36pm

      I like this idea. Though, they'd probably charge for the cleanup of the pennies.

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      KoenigSTIGgIknowyouareright
      11/14/14 8:27am

      She has to pay a fee for littering 28 matrresses.

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    InsertWittyScreenNameHereHillary Crosley Coker
    11/14/14 10:08am

    I misread this headline as "Columbia charges rape prosecutors $471 to clean up dirty mattresses", and was all "well let's call today FUCK YEAH FRIDAY!!!".

    Of course I was wrong, because the world is fucking horrible.

    ETA: Also, it's just hitting me how truly awful it is that Columbia will punish students who leave mattresses laying around, but won't punish rapists.

    FUCK THIS WHOLE THING AND THIS WHOLE DAY.

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      teagurlHillary Crosley Coker
      11/13/14 5:39pm

      28 students with mattresses...how many mattresses? 28? Less? More? The cleaning fee was for...just the removal of the mattresses? Were they destroyed? Dumped? Cleaned for reuse? People seem to think this was just to have the mattresses themselves cleaned, but Columbia states: As our earlier statement notes, the University chose to underwrite the costs of the campus cleanup, but only assess the costs for additional cleanup for materials left on a public sidewalk, which total $471. So there's a different fee to clean up materials from the sidewalk that they were assessed, even though everything states the mattresses were left in the street?

      There is some very lax reporting.

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        suarezhambriento2Hillary Crosley Coker
        11/13/14 4:31pm

        One more reason not to donate. Ugh - this whole thing has been so embarrassing.

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          merchantfanHillary Crosley Coker
          11/13/14 4:55pm

          No way those mattresses are worth that much. Those are $200 mattresses tops. College mattresses suck.

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