On the door of a dorm room in Scheffres Hall, next to the dry erase board, is a white plastic sign with blue capital letters announcing "Sung-Lo's Bar Mitzvah." To further celebrate Sung-Lo Yoon's '09 becoming a man in the Jewish faith, well-wishers wrote comments such as, "I'm so proud of you, you chanted perfectly," and "It was great dancing the hora with you." Yet, Yoon never had a Bar Mitzvah, and, in fact, is not even Jewish. The door decoration is just one of the many looted signs hung up around campus that denote everything from parking options to parties.

This particular sign, originally designed to direct traffic for "Sarah's Bat Mitzvah," was taken by students, transformed to read "Sung-Lo's Bar Mitzvah" and hung up outside of Yoon's room.

Soon the sign will be an artifact of Brandeis' past, since new event signage will be installed as part of the University's Comprehensive Campus Signage Project.

"New event signage would replace, namely, the signs that people steal," wrote Director of Union Affairs Aaron Gaynor '07 in an e-mail to the Justice.

Yoon and his friends are not the only culprits of this dorm-decorating technique. When North Quad sponsored a contest to create haunted halls, residents of Cable Hall's second floor utilized stolen Bat-Mitzvah signs here too. Hallmates added "of doom" to the end of "Jaclyn's Bat Mitzvah." One student reported that her two roommates had the audacity to write "cancelled" on a "Natalie's Bat Mitzvah" sign.

In order to show their pride for Scheffres, some female first-years stole a Scheffres sign and placed it in their window.

Despite these blatant acts of theft, there seems to be little active opposition by fellow students to the rampant sign-stealing here at Brandeis.

"As long as [the signs] are not being used, I don't have a problem with [the stealing]," North Quad Senator Alex Braver '09 said. "It will be hard to find somebody outraged."

However, Ross Felder '08 was shocked to hear that the signs were stolen.

"You sure they aren't getting blown away by wind?" asked Felder. When told that signs really were being stolen, he decried the sign-stealing as pointless.

But some students said that it doesn't seem wrong to steal since the signs seem cheap and of low quality. They also said that the flimsy nature of the signs made it easy to take them for a quick thrill.

In one of the Foster Mods, over a dozen stolen signs decorate the common room wall. One of the Mod's residents, Bekka Saks '06, said she has been collecting the signs since last year because it is easy and fun.

"Once people know you as someone who takes signs they bring them over to you," she said.

The new signage project, which will bring 31 new vehicular signs and 54 new pedestrian signs to campus, will include three vehicular signs especially designed for event information, as well as the ability to add event information to new building identification signs. The new event information signs will be locked in so that students will be unable to steal them, according to Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan.

The Site Design Standards and Comprehensive Campus Signage Committee worked to create a plan for uniform signs throughout the campus because the office of Capital Projects said they believe the current signage on campus is outdated and inconsistent. The new event signs will show that Brandeis is "professional and organized" unlike the old, "floppy" signs, according to Gaynor, who also was one of the student representatives to the Signage Committee. The project will make Brandeis more aesthetically pleasing, Gaynor said.

As for the current stealing of the signs, Gaynor expressed disapproval of students who take signs vital to giving visitors directions.

Most students are not aware that the University re-uses parts of the signs. The assumption is that once an occasion is over, signs no longer have value. But Callahan said the blue lettering can be taken off to form new signs. One student recalled that his host at the open house last April gave him the sign directing students to the Village as a souvenir.

One mother was thrilled to hear about the new signs.

"When visiting the campus during family weekend, I was unimpressed at the blue, plastic directional signs," she said. "I feel that an institution such as Brandeis should have attractive and durable signs.