There are lots of little charges that add up in College dorms. When I went to college I lived in a coed dorm and if there happen to be a maxi pad or tampon on the floor, the janitorial staff would charge the girls side a biohazard fee of $75 to pick it up with a glove each time they found one. When I found out I volunteered to pick them up for free with a disposable glove. We also had an incident where a glass holding case was broken and security didn't want to figure out who did it so they were going to charge the entire dorm $500 to fix it. A friend of mine and I followed the glass trail and let security know which room had the culprits along with the bloody door from cutting their hand on the glass. Colleges would bill you for the air you breath if they could figure out how.

OK HOLD THE PHONE. $400 to fix a bench? That's bullshit. You shouldn't even have to pay a dime. Sorry op :/

File a complaint with the city safety office against the college for having unsafe equipment/ furniture

Tell them you'll sue them. It's dangerous to keep benches not maintained properly and include your emotional stress, the time that took you to file the report and also file a report against the person who was administrating and gave you the report to sign.

no good deed goes unpunished