When a drunken student dumped a bunch of mayonnaise on the floor of a dorm at University of Maryland, Jordy Hirschfeld had enough.

The resident assistant at Easton Hall had already endured male freshmen smearing human feces on the wall, puking in the elevator, urinating in the halls, tearing down exit signs and flipping trash cans.

So Hirschfeld plotted his revenge and got the OK from his boss: For two weeks, no housekeepers would clean the filthy fourth floor of the dorm on UMd.’s College Park campus.

That, he said, would teach residents of the dorm a lesson in cleanliness.

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“I have never seen such disrespect,” Hirschfeld said.

During the two weeks, the trash piled up, and the rank smell of a dirty bathroom and moldy rooms flooded the floor.

“It was nasty,” said one of the janitors, who asked that her name not be published out of fear of retribution from angry students. “They don’t even flush the toilets.”

Some students bemoaned the suspension of janitorial services, saying it was unfair that all of them - even innocent ones -- were punished.

“It was an ill-advised plan; what kind of point can you make to a bunch of 18-year-old freshmen?” said John Gerdes, an alumnus who lived in Easton in 2003-04 and remembers the sticky floors.

But Hirschfeld doesn’t regret the cleaning hiatus, which ended Monday.

Some students, he notes, even thank the custodians now.

Easton Hall has long suffered -- and savored -- its reputation.

“It has a bad name, and that’s how it’s always been,” said freshman Brendan Hayes, 18, who heard of Easton’s exploits from older fraternity brothers.

Over the years, the unruly occupants have become part of the university’s folklore: Incoming students learn about the debauchery and work hard to carry on the tradition.

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com