The university’s Tom Brown-Pete Wright apartments have experienced a recent increase in student misconduct.

The incidents included students removing trash cans from the trash rooms, stealing toilet paper from the Tom Brown-Pete Wright common bathrooms, stealing cleaning supplies from housekeeping and urinating in the laundry room.

An e-mail sent by Rony Die, Tom Brown-Pete Wright hall director, to students living in the apartments addressed the incidents. He wrote in the e-mail that it had been hard to find pride in the current actions of the community.

“The actions stated above go beyond disrespect and I am asking that we all work together in building up our community,” Die wrote.

The incidents had continued throughout the semester and were discussed with the resident assistants as they occurred. This process seemed to curb the behavior, Die said.

“However, recently a few of these actions have been occurring again, and I felt it was necessary to address the whole community,” Die said.

As for uncovering the people behind these acts, it was difficult to determine whether residents or visitors were behind the incidents. When students were asked to return trash cans to the trash rooms they complied, Die said.

However, placing blame on students for other incidents was difficult because there were no witnesses, Die added.

“Some don’t even make sense such as the urine found in the laundry room because each apartment unit has two bathrooms in them,” Die said.

Die said he hoped his e-mail to students would help generate some conversations on community standards and ethics. He also planned to have resident assistants follow up with their residents to see if they had any concerns they wanted to share.

“All this should bring a sense of awareness to the community and possibly result with an end to the aforementioned incidents,” Die said.

John Byrom, a junior accounting major who lives in the Tom Brown-Pete Wright apartments, said he was unaware of the incidents until he read the e-mail. He said he felt that the e-mail could help in raising awareness but thought it was unlikely that anybody would turn himself or herself in.

“It could really be anyone living in Tom Brown-Pete Wright or not,” Byrom said.

All of the Tom Brown-Pete Wright apartment incidents violated university policies. Students found to have been involved in any of the incidents would take part in the university’s discipline process as outlined in the 2009-2010 TCU Official Student Handbook, Die said.

One of the violations filed by Die was theft and unauthorized use of property. The Code of Student Conduct states that violations occurred if there was theft or attempted theft, or the unauthorized use or possession of university property or services, or the property of others.

The community standards policy, which Die said was also violated, requires students to adhere to a standard of behavior that allowed others to live comfortably in the environment. Specifically, improper visitation hours, excessive noise and unescorted guests violate this policy, according to the Code of Student Conduct.

Die said he realized not every student living in the Tom Brown-Pete Wright apartments was involved but encouraged students to be proactive in helping officials correct these problems.

“I can look further into the situation but without something concrete it will be difficult to proceed forward with the university discipline process,” Die said.

Students or residents with information regarding these incidents may contact Die’s office at (817) 257-5895.