Where did Pullman’s wholesome, 1950s farm town image go? You know, the image I was sold on — the one that was splashed all over the cover of the Washington State University brochures? Lately, I feel like I have stepped out of “Pleasantville” and into “Boyz n the Hood.”

In case you hadn’t noticed, the last few weeks of news around here have been dominated by instances of unscrupulous and repugnant behavior. It proves how the community needs to become more diligent and step up to report this kind of behavior before it becomes an infectious community problem.

Starting with the arrest of Sierra Windsor, 21, who was allegedly slanging cocaine behind her sorority house, Sigma Kappa, and busted after a month-long investigation with Quad Cities Drug Task Force. The task force was gaining intel on Pullman drug users and dealers from a presumably “flipped” informant with previous drug charges.

Comments surrounding articles on this case, which can be found on KHQ, The Daily Evergreen and KREM 2 News, paint a nice picture of how this girl must be a “victim of something,” showing a disgusting side of white privilege. Had this girl been any shade of brown it would have been interesting to see if she still would have had “public favor” or if people would have said “oh, that figures.”

It is also important to note the university issued no statement and for a while, neither did the chapter of Sigma Kappa at WSU.

Next, we move into the fascinating tale of civil engineering associate professor Haifang Wen, 41, who, according to many local news agencies, was arrested on charges of making false statements to federal agencies, perpetrating a wire fraud scheme and conspiring to engage in financial transactions with the scheme or wired money, per a press release from U.S. attorney William J. Hochul, Jr.

Haifang (Harry), his older brother Bin (Ben) and his wife Pang (Jessica) were scooped up by federal authorities at around the same time. Hochul claims the Wen family used these government funds as their own personal piggy bank, if you will.

The news broke on Feb. 25 and it took WSU Interim President Dan Bernardo until March 2 to issue a statement. If you didn’t read the email (because it was quite lengthy), allow me to summarize: the school said it is cooperating with the FBI and based on WSU records, it looks like the total of the two contracts was in the neighborhood of $500,000, not $8 million as stated in previous reports. The end was a long discussion on how great WSU research is and how we are a school that pulls in $330 million in research annually.

Since when is $500,000 in possible stolen revenue supposed to be a “good thing?” I mean, it is less than $8 million, but stealing federal grant money is still a serious crime.

By the way, I wouldn’t trust WSU accounting or reporting records as far I could throw them. I have turned in documents via email, upload and in person, only to find out after deadlines have passed that the university says they never got them — or they just didn’t bother to submit them on time.

Not to mention, trying to hold someone accountable who is responsible for filing those papers was like pulling teeth and watching a teenager throw a tantrum. Pass that buck. So, excuse me for having my doubts.

Lastly was the story about the 53-year-old man (he won’t be named here) that posted a thread titled “Mass Murders” on the local Craigslist page where he proceeded to threaten anyone wearing WSU apparel. Just nuts.

Over the last few weeks there have also been reports coming in through WSU Free and For-Sale on Facebook about strings of car break-in’s, houses being broken into and stuff being stolen out of Amazon boxes on porches.

This town is being hit on all fronts: students, professors and even the surrounding community. It is time we wake up and all become more diligent citizens — if you see something it is your duty to say something.