Trails of mud surfaced across campus and throughout residence halls following Festivus Sunday aftenoon, causing damages and Physical Plant cleanup crews in the days to come.
Festivus, an annual student-run event started by students more than a decade ago is separate from the university and brought students together off campus in the Sheridan Apartments.
Robert Buchholz, director of physical plant, said damages from Festivus included muddy handprints on a column in Colonnades D, a sink clogged with mud in Danieley C, mud on a carpet in Danieley N and mud markings near Lindner Hall, the Global Neighborhood and seven Mill Point buildings.
He said he does not know the estimated cost in damages.
One thing was missing on campus from recent years: hoses outside of residence halls, provided by the university.
SGA President Avery Steadman announced during the April 23 SGA Senate meeting that Elon University would not be providing hoses outside campus residences for Festivus because of concerns over the growing size of the event.
In years past hoses were provided outside of residence halls so students could clean themselves and rid their clothes and shoes of the mud.
This year, MarQuita Barker, associate director of residence life for operations and information management, said residents will incur fines for any damages in the residence halls.
“Students tracking mud are charged for cleaning and damage,” she said. “If no one takes ownership, we have community charges.”
Barker said in an email that Residence Life did not provide hoses for a long time but did in the past two to three years.
“Festivus is not a university sponsored or supported event, so we did not offer hoses as an effort to not enable students,” Barker said. “Individual staff members did not have the option to provide hoses.”
According to Buchholz, he and his staff, under direction from Student Life, did not provide hoses this year.
“It would have helped if the event coordinators had more hoses and resources for people to clean themselves at the event instead of students dragging mud across campus,” Buchholz said.
James Perry, Town of Elon assistant police chief, said his department had eight to ten officers present at the event, which is typical.
He said the event led to the injuries of two female students, one with a mild head injury and the other sick from a previous illness. He said their current condition was not known.