Series of Intrusions Highlight Vulnerability of Residential Learning Communities

As cases of non-affiliates on campus rise, Campus Safety Services and Residence Life work to facilitate new precautionary measures

“Please do not hold the door open for people behind you. We understand it may seem impolite, however, we do not want anyone who shouldn't be in the building allowed in. If someone is sprinting in behind, does not listen to you, or you see any other safety concern, please contact Campus Safety Services.”

This quote, from an April 10 email to Finn Hall residents by Joselyn Briseño, resident director of Cura Residential Learning Community, was sent after Campus Safety responded to reports of “trespassing” or “suspicious persons.” 

“In the recent weeks there has been an increase of policy and safety violations within our community,” Briseño further stated in the email. “More often than not they are found to be committed by non-Cura residents and even some non-SCU students.”

From March 19 to April 18, 29 persons were caught “trespassing” or were classified as a “suspicious person,” according to the Daily Crime and Fire Log from Campus Safety Services. These claims came from residence halls across campus: Finn, Swig, Dunne, Graham, McLaughlin-Walsh, Casa Italiana and Loyola, as well as Bellomy Field, Learning Commons and the Alameda Mall. Two of these reports ended in arrests–one trespassing case at Casa Italiana and one indecent exposure case at the Mission Church.

One individual recently escorted off campus by the Santa Clara Police Department is a known trespasser on the Santa Clara, Stanford and San José State campuses. 

“We found him the other day coming in on the cameras and immediately intercepted him,” said Director of Campus Safety Phil Beltran. “The Santa Clara Police Department was called because he has a protective order out of Stanford, and we're in the process of getting one here.” 

The presence of non-affiliates on campus has been a priority for Beltran and Director of Residence Life Lafayette Baker.

“What’s concerning us is where our students live, so we have prioritized residents' buildings,” said Beltran. “We take these types of intrusions really seriously, especially when our students are seeing the non-affiliates in residence life. We've been working on this for two or three months. We have a plan and we are in that plan right now.” 

The Campus Safety and Residence Life departments have been working together to create precautionary measures to ensure community safety. Since contacting the police department is the final step of security measures, the current plan is focused on community action and improving physical safety technology.

“The plan is 3 E's,” said Beltran. “Education of the staff and the residents, enforcement of the rules about non-affiliates being in and then engineering. We're looking at more cameras, better doors that close quicker and just better monitoring in general.” 

Residence Directors and Community Facilitators across campus have played an integral role in informing residents on how to keep resident halls secure. 

According to Beltran, the main cause of intrusions on campus is “piggybacking”–when an individual follows behind a resident after the door is unlocked. 

“Early on, when we started to hear about potential non-affiliates, we worked with the resident directors in Dunne and Swig,” said Baker. “They crafted a message to send to their students about not letting non-affiliates in behind you and some steps they could take if someone came in and didn't respond to the resident saying, ‘You shouldn't come in.’” 

New messages displayed on monitors throughout the resident halls give students more information about how to act in situations with non-affiliates on campus. The current high-priority buildings according to Beltran and Baker are Swig, Dunne and McLaughlin-Walsh Halls because of the nature of their entrances.

“We now have what's called a ‘directed patrol’ where our campus safety officers walk each floor from 10:00 PM until 4:00 in the morning,” said Beltran. “These were the times when we were seeing a lot of non-affiliates trying to get in, staying in the lounges, hanging in the lobbies and just bothering our residents. Rather than waiting for them to call we can direct our patrol to address it.”

An additional precaution is the enforcement of guest policies so that friends of Santa Clara students are not confused as trespassers. The 2022-2023 Student Handbook states that Santa Clara students must accompany their guests at all times, and they will be held accountable for the behavior of their guests. 

“It's very common for students to bring friends from other schools to come to visit. So that is where we get more into our policy enforcement and educating students about, having to manage your guests and being aware of everything they're doing when they're on campus,” Baker said. “It's definitely a partnership between safety and housing. Our staff does a good job that if they see something either confronting it if they are comfortable or they'll call campus safety.” 

Beltran reiterated this by praising all the work students and staff members have done to keep campus safe.

“The Community Facilitators who are students that work in resident halls are the unsung heroes,” Beltran said. “They are the ones who call Campus Safety Services anytime they see something or have confronted something.”