The Wave, the newest piece of artwork to grace the SMU’s campus, has become the most recent to suffer from vandalism. Twice. In one week. This is utterly absurd.

Last Friday, someone poured liquid detergent into the reflecting pool beneath the sculpture. Two days later a student damaged the display by attempting to “ride” the Wave.

While damages to the $1.5 million work of art have yet to be announced, the fact that there are any at all says a lot about SMU. How little respect do we have for our own campus when we entertain ourselves by damaging property that belongs to every member of this community?

Many around campus have been complaining about the increased presence of security cameras, but if anything else is demonstrated by the pathetic pranks that damaged the Wave it is that valuable property and works of art need this sort of protection.

The accused culprit behind Sunday’s damage to the Wave was identified thanks to the security camera system.

If students cannot be trusted to respect the campus, its buildings and artwork on their own, then there are few arguments that can be made against even further “Big Brother” style security systems.

For better or worse, how we treat our campus reflects upon every member of the SMU community. With as much concern as the administration gives SMU’s image (particularly in relation to the oh-so-important benchmark schools), provocations such as this can only lead to more draconian security systems.

So lets have respect for our campus, for ourselves, and for the university, and make sure these first two incidents against the Wave are also the last two.