A man initially charged with indecent assault and battery after he entered a Boston University dorm and encountered female students inside, said court-ordered community service and probation for reduced charges of misdemeanor assault and battery are fair punishment for his actions.

West Campus students, however, remained divided on the case’s outcome and the safety of their residence halls.

Daniel Glaser, 21, a Lehigh University junior, said he and his friend, Aaron Goodliss, a Johnson ‘ Wales University junior, entered Claflin Hall after meeting residents at an off-campus party where both had been drinking alcohol. Glaser and Goodliss were making noise and running around the halls in the early hours of Jan. 20, he said.

“We were being stupid college kids, you know?” Glaser said in an interview last week. “We were being irresponsible.”

Glaser said his actions on the morning of Jan. 20, which included entering two female residents’ unlocked rooms, were not preconceived or malicious in any way. He was also at first charged with breaking and entering at nighttime, which was reduced to simple breaking and entering, and unarmed burglary, which was dismissed.

“I think that a lot of things were taken out of context, a lot of things,” he said. “I think that I was overcharged.”

He said drinking played a role in the series of events that night and noted things could “get out of control pretty quickly” when alcohol is involved. He said the prosecution’s initial indecent assault charges and the BU administration’s characterization of his actions as sexual assault in an email to students were completely unfounded.

“It was hard for me to accept the fact that I was being accused of this stuff,” he said. “I knew that I didn’t do it.”

Glaser, who is a Gryphon — or resident assistant — according to a Jan. 25 article in The Brown and White, the Lehigh student newspaper, said he does not think the charges or result of the assault case will affect his future. He is a biology major with a premed concentration. Glaser said he is awaiting a hearing with the Lehigh administration regarding his suspensions and is enrolled in classes at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

“I was wrong for scaring these girls, and I feel really bad about that and I’m sorry about that,” he said.

Glaser said other students should learn from his mistake and be careful when signing strangers into their dorms.

“I think that the guards should be more vigilant too,” he said. “I’m saying this as an outside observer. Be really careful about who you let in don’t just let anyone in.”

Many female students in West Campus, including Sleeper Hall resident Afra Khan, said they thought the community-service and probation punishment was too clement.

“Community service makes you feel good about yourself,” Khan, a College of General Studies sophomore, said. “It is not a punishment. It belittles what happened to [the victims].”

CGS freshman and Rich Hall resident Alysse Barsamian expressed similar sentiments and said the two men who entered Claflin should have gone to trial and faced stricter punishment.

“We have security guards so people can’t get in,” she said. “If we’re going through the trouble of having security guards, they should be punished more severely.”

Barsamian said the court’s order will not discourage similar events in the future.

“I definitely think it gives a gateway to anyone who thinks they want to break into a building where young people are,” she said.

Alyshia Retmula, a CGS sophomore, said she thought community service was too light a punishment for such an act.

“I do community service – that’s no repercussion,” she said.

Some students said they also thought the punishment should have been stricter because the assault made people feel unsafe.

“It scares me because this is where we live,” CGS freshman Ashley Michael said. “It’s as if it happened in our own home.”

School of Management sophomore Riddhi Desai said she thinks college campuses should be safe enough to leave room doors unlocked, but understands that “things happen.”

“You don’t like people using your things and getting into your bed,” she said. “It really shakes you.”

Male students who were interviewed in West Campus said the punishment was fair and said Glaser should not be severely punished for one drunken incident.

CGS sophomore Richie Dorman said the blame could be placed upon the drunken intruders, the residents who signed the two men into the building in the first place or those who forgot to lock their doors.

“I think the punishment fits the crime,” CGS sophomore Tommy Strackhouse said. “He didn’t touch any erogenous areas.”

College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Jonathon Barnes echoed this view.

“He definitely violated her space, but I feel like that’s someone coming up to a girl and smacking her [butt],” he said. “Do you go to jail for that?”

College of Engineering freshman Tyler Nappy, who lives on the 12th floor of Claflin Hall where Glaser entered residents’ rooms, said he thought community service was a fair punishment.

“They’re young kids, and what they did was wrong,” he said. “But everyone does stupid things and makes mistakes.”

“As a guy, I don’t feel less safe, but I can understand how girls would feel less comfortable,” Nappy said. “It’s pretty scary that something like that could happen.”

Staff writers Sydney Lupkin and Lizzy Snell contributed reporting to this article.