Jan. 22, 2024
By Lexi Roh
OTE Assistant Editor
Several Edgewood College women report feeling uneasy after college officials failed to investigate an incident of a man wandering around Sonderegger Hall last semester.
The students said they alerted Resident Assistants (RAs) about the stranger’s presence near the residence hall at 8 p.m. Oct. 2, but no action was taken.
Edgewood College’s Security Office said the following week that it did not receive a report on the siting.
Jack Leskovar, director of security at the college, said students can report any concern at any time via a phone number that students can and should call. However, students interviewed for this article said they did not know about the phone number which is posted in the entryways of residence halls.
“I feel like the issue wasn’t addressed very well in the beginning, and made me and others uneasy,” said Kate Richardson, an Edgewood Freshman.
The fact that the issue went unreported sparked some students to take more precautions on campus because they said they do not feel protected now that they know strangers can roam campus.
“While I usually feel very safe on campus at night, I no longer felt like I could be alone on campus,” said Brook Schenk, an Edgewood Freshman. “I walk my friend home to Regina every night after we hang out and I don’t feel safe doing that alone anymore.”
Leskovar said he was “extremely upset” that his office had not been notified immediately about the stranger on campus after he found out about the incident when a parent called the office.
“When we have a threat, we address it readily,” he said. “The number to call security is in each residence hall entryway, but if there is another way to get this out to students so that they’ll use it effectively, I’ll do it.”
He also added the security office has a staffer on call 24/7, so at any point in time there will be someone to answer the phone. The Campus Assistance Center (CAC) is also always open if students need to ask for security, he said.
“The commitment I make to parents is that I look at everybody as if they’re my kids
here,” Leskovar said.
The security office reviewed video from the campus’s 250 cameras that had 400 views and concluded the man was not a threat, he said.
“I talked to student development and told them they need to communicate issues with security immediately,” Leskovar said.
The Dean of Students office supervises resident assistants.
When asked to comment on this incident, Vice President for Student Development
Matt Sulivan of the Dean of Students office said:
“We encourage residents to actively participate by monitoring who they let into buildings, ensuring exterior and interior doors remain locked, and reporting any concerns promptly to Security or Residence Life staff. Additionally, Residence Life and Security staff walk through the residence halls and other areas of campus multiple times per day to look for and respond to any suspicious activity. Security also offers safety escorts to our community members should anyone want to travel across campus with somebody else joining them.
“If ever there is a report regarding unknown people entering the residence halls, Security and Residence Life work together to identify the individual and address the situation so that our community can continue to feel safe on campus overall.”
Kate Berman, an Edgewood Senior and a residence assistant in Stevie Hall, said this incident offers an opportunity for Edgewood’s security team and the Residence Life team to review steps and processes to ensure a safe and comfortable campus.
“This includes having a professional staff that knows the protocols, but also educating and informing students of ways to keep themselves safe on campus to prevent further situations like this in the future,” Berman said.
“(If) anytime anything like this were to come up in the future, just call. We’re here to help and protect you,” Leskovar said.
The Security Office Emergency Line is 608-663-4321. Its Non-Emergency Line is 608-663-3285.
The Campus Assistance Emergency Line is 608-663-4444.
The Security Office is in Weber Hall.
Residence Halls put security information on entryway bulletin boards but students said that they did not receive training on when to call the numbers or how to alert authorities after hours.
Credit: Lexi Roh for On The Edge
