A man allegedly entered several students’ dorm room in 33 Harry Agganis Way and made sexually explicit comments toward residents on Jan. 22, according to Boston University Police Department crime logs. Several items were also reported missing from one of the rooms after the visitor entered.
The man, who was not affiliated with BU, was signed into the building as a visitor. He was initially released with a warning, then criminally charged once students reported several items were missing from one of the rooms after the visitor entered, according to the log.
He is banned from the residence hall, said BUPD Acting Chief Scott Paré.
Maddy, a resident of StuVi II who requested her last name not be used, said she was folding laundry in her room the day of the incident when she heard the front door of her apartment open.
“I heard the door open and just assumed my roommates were coming home. I was a bit thrown off by the male voices,” she said. “But then I thought, ‘Oh, probably a friend.’”
Maddy said two men walked into her apartment and asked one of her roommates, who was sitting in the common room, if she knew “where to find Sarah.” Maddy’s roommate told the two men they were in the wrong apartment.
“They just walked back toward the front door and kind of lingered in our entry by our semi-open door,” Maddy said.
Maddy said she didn’t think much of the incident until a few minutes later, when she saw BU police questioning the two men who had entered her room.
“That’s when I realized that — oh my god, this guy is a stranger, and somehow got into the building,” she said. “This situation is pretty serious.”
Maddy said that while the event frightened her, she has never felt unsafe on campus or in her residence.
“I definitely think I’m more aware of my surroundings now, but I don’t feel scared,” she said. “But it’s also important to me that other women feel safe on campus, so even though I feel safe, the fact that this situation happened to another person and they feel that they were in danger and had to call BUPD, makes me upset.”
Lovie Burleson, a sophomore in the College of General Studies, also said a man entered her room in StuVi II on Jan. 22, same day that BUPD received the incident report.
Burleson said he asked for “Sarah,” which is coincidentally the name of one of Burleson’s roommates. This incident was a lesson in security for her and her roommates, Burleson added.
“He came in asking for one of my roommates,” Burleson said. “We assumed she knew him and told him she wasn’t home and to come back later. He also asked if we had boyfriends for some reason. We didn’t know that he was an intruder, and we didn’t think much of it.”
Burleson said she and her roommates later discovered that items had gone missing from the room.
“We definitely learned a lesson in security” she said. “Our door was unlocked — big lesson for us, we lock it now.”
This is not the first time that StuVi II residents reported finding stranger in their rooms. In October 2015, a female student reported that she woke up in her StuVi II room to find a stranger sexually assaulting her, The Daily Free Press reported Oct. 29, 2015.
The female student filed a lawsuit against the university in December, claiming that BU failed to provide secure on-campus housing and did not protect her from sexual harassment, The Daily Free Press reported Dec. 12.
Paré said this year’s incident is unrelated to the one in 2015.
Paré said the campus is working to tighten its visitor policy by implementing a new practice. Students will be given a card when they sign a visitor into a campus residence, outlining their responsibility for their visitor, he said.
Courtney Breiner, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the suspect also entered her room, and the event made her nervous as a resident of the building.
“I was most uncomfortable with the fact that this boy thought it was okay to walk into girls’ rooms without asking, harass them and leave abruptly,” Breiner said. “He felt he had a right to do all of those things and he didn’t. BU was great about checking in, utilizing security and the police, and continuing to make sure the women in StuVi II feel safe.”
BU spokesperson Colin Riley said the safety and security of students is BU’s ultimate concern.
“The single most important focus of BU is the safety and security of our students,” Riley said. “Every aspect of safety and security including the locks on the doors, the swiping and the 24-hour security and the BUPD are all elements of that safety and security for a Boston University student.”
Riley also wrote in an email that students should only sign in guests they know personally.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect Courtney Breiner’s comments about her encounter with the stranger.
