On Saturday, Nov. 5, between 12:00 and 5:00a.m. several decorations were vandalized in The Quad, which is dubbed “Olympic Town” for Villanova’s Special Olympics Fall Fest. The incident was reported to Public Safety at 6:23a.m. as criminal mischief.

The incident was reported to the Villanova Department of Public Safety by Steve Koch, Villanova’s Associate Director of Leadership Programs and advisor for Fall Festival. Koch described what he saw in The Quad Sunday morning.

“Sunday morning a few students came into my office and indicated there were some concerns at Olympic Town with some damages,” said Koch. “I walked down there with them, and we observed that some of the flags draped between flag poles were down – maybe two rows of it. Our mini pumpkins, maybe four or five, were torn up a little bit, and honestly, a little bit of glass that could maybe fill a ball cap. We don’t even know if that was a part of the mischief.”

Koch explained how he and Special Olympics student leaders addressed the vandalism and adjusted as a team.

“They were very minor damages,” Koch said. “I wouldn’t even call them damages. Inconveniences, sure. Did we adjust? Absolutely, and the adjustment took about 30 minutes, and that’s because we were waiting for grounds to clean up the glass because we didn’t want our students to touch the glass.”

The value of the damaged property is unknown, according to Public Safety’s report. Koch explained that once maintenance crews arrived at the scene, the Special Olympics team moved on from the incident and the event continued to be a great success. 

“Grounds also reinstalled the flags, which were fine as well,” Koch said. “The little pumpkins, four or five of them, again, no big deal. They were just on the ground messed up a little bit. No damage to any buildings, no damage to any of the grounds, just a few very minor concerns.”

Villanova hosts the largest student-run Special Olympics event in the world, with more than 20,000 athlete participants. This year marked the 35th annual Special Olympics Fall Fest at Villanova. Koch has served as advisor for Special Olympics for 13 years and explained the importance of Special Olympics.

“Considering the importance and the impact of the weekend, for individuals to think, for some laughs, that it was a good idea to do something like that is sad,” Koch said. “But, it

really was not an inconvenience for us. It was early enough in the morning that we adapted pretty quickly and we shifted our focus back onto what was important, which was having a good Sunday at fall fest for our athletes.”

The matter is still under investigation, per Public Safety report. To report information on this matter, contact Villanova Department of Public Safety’s non-emergency line at (610) 519-5800 or visit https://www1.villanova.edu/university/public-safety.html.