MINNEAPOLIS — The University of Minnesota (U of M) is urging students to be on alert after an incident that took place in a women's bathroom Sunday inside an on-campus dorm.
A KARE 11 viewer reported that a man was seen inside a women's shower room on the 4th floor of Territorial Hall, and a message sent to students and their families confirms some sort of incident did take place.
The U of M Department of Housing and Residential Life said in the message that campus police officers were called to investigate a report of an unescorted person gaining access to Territorial Hall and being located in a bathroom. The email says a dorm resident reported the sighting to staff, who alerted police.
University of Minnesota police officers responded to make sure the individual was no longer in the building. As a response to the intruder, University Security is stepping up patrols at the dorm.
The email goes on to urge members of the dorm community to:
- Lock your room door whenever you are sleeping or away.
- Use main building doors to enter/exit the building rather than emergency exits.
- Don’t prop doors open or hold doors for others, allowing them to enter the building.
"I think it's really scary," said Rudi Pham, a freshman who lives in Territorial Hall. "The emergency exits... a lot of people are exiting out of there for some reason instead of the entrance, probably because it's closer."
Students are also urged to call 911 immediately to report suspicious behavior, especially people trying to access dorm buildings or rooms.
But multiple students told KARE 11 that more needs to be done to keep them safe.
"I know that in other buildings they have codes to get into bathrooms for other freshman dorms and it's just like, I wonder why we don't have those and other people do," said Mmayen Etuko, a freshman living in Territorial Hall.
In late October campus authorities said a man was spotted peeping in the women's showers of Frontier Hall on two separate occasions, triggering a crime alert. The suspect was also seen walking in Comstock Hall during that same month.
"He was actually trying to film someone who was showering," said Yasmine Tabrizi, a freshman who lives in Frontier Hall.
Both Tabrizi and Etuko said not only do their residences not require a code or card to access the bathrooms, but their showers have curtains instead of doors. Both would like to see doors installed with locks.
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