Students in residential halls across LSU’s campus have reported security breaches during the 2021-2022 school year and expressed doubts about safety in campus halls. 

The most recent incident involved a shooting at the Ion Apartments on West Chimes Street in March. Other security concerns in recent months include when a man broke into Cypress Hall in February and chased a student, and when a broken door in Acadian Hall allowed a student’s ex-boyfriend to make his way to the outside of the student’s dorm room. 

The break-ins and faulty security measures meant to keep non-students out of the dorms have raised concerns of student safety on campus. 

Cypress Hall

As Sports Administration freshman Jacob Pickett walked through the main entrance of Cypress Hall on Feb. 6, he took the elevator to the third floor and saw an older man waiting at his hall’s door, which required a Tiger Card swipe to enter.

Pickett didn’t know how the man passed the main building’s entrance because the exterior doors also require a Tiger Card swipe. He believes the man may have caught the door after other residents entered the building.

Pickett said the man, who appeared to be in his 30s or 40s, had an aggressive tone and asked him to let him into the hallway. The man said he “needed privacy to call his boys,” Pickett said. Pickett didn’t want to intervene, so he turned around, opened the door to the staircase and began to walk down to the first floor.

Pickett could tell he was being chased when he heard the rapid sound of the man’s heavy footsteps echo against the cement walls in the staircase. The man yelled and taunted as he chased Pickett.

“I started walking down. He started like running at me, so I started running down,” Pickett said. “He’s like, ‘Oh, you’re scared of me or something?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I mean, if you’re gonna run at me, I’m gonna be scared.’”

Pickett ran into the lobby, and the man stopped chasing him. Afterward, Pickett saw the man continuing to stand in the staircase. Pickett heard him talking but was not sure whether the man was talking to himself or to other people in the staircase.

“Just the whole situation was weird,” Pickett said. “I wasn’t really expecting to see some random guy follow me, chase after me and tell him to let him into a room.”

Acadian Hall

On Jan. 22, Kinesiology freshman Jill Hollier’s ex-boyfriend bypassed several layers of security in Acadian Hall, attempting to meet her against her will. The ex-boyfriend is not an LSU student.

Separating Hollier’s room from the outside are four total doors. The first two doors can be opened by a Tiger Card swipe. The third door is meant to work the same way but has been broken since the fall. The fourth door to Hollier’s dorm room requires a key. 

The first two doors have the most people pass through, making them easy for a nonresident to tailgate in after a resident with a Tiger Card.

When her ex-boyfriend entered her hall, Hollier was across the hall in a friend’s room. She was unsure if she had left her bedroom door locked before going to see her friends. She was worried her ex-boyfriend would try and access her bedroom or that her roommate might wander inside, unaware of the situation.

Hollier tried to look through the peephole of her friends’ door but couldn’t see anything, but she heard her ex-boyfriend’s voice, as did the rest of the floor.

Prior to his intrusion, Hollier had repeatedly texted her ex-boyfriend that she didn’t want to see or talk to him.

“I didn’t cry, but I was scared,” Hollier said. “I didn’t think he would try to hurt me but the fact I was saying, ‘No I don’t want to talk to you’ and he still tried was just uncomfortable.”

Hollier informed her friends in the hall that if her ex-boyfriend tried knocking to ignore it. She was in communication with him the entire time, trying to deflect calls and replying “no” to his texts.

“But he still wouldn’t take no for an answer. And then, eventually, he left, and he told me he left,” Hollier said.

Hollier waited inside her friends’ room for about 30 minutes as a precaution. As she was about to leave, her ex-boyfriend came back. He resumed knocking on the doors and frightening residents before Hollier called and informed her residential assistant, who got other RAs to handle the situation.

Hollier considered calling LSUPD but ultimately opted not to.

“I did think about calling them but I didn’t want to ruin [my ex-boyfriend’s] life,” Hollier said.

Beauregard Hall

General Business freshman Jackson Gremillion walked into his communal kitchen in Beauregard Hall when he saw a man, who looked the age of a student, sleeping on two chairs that were pushed together. Gremellion knows everyone in his stack and did not recognize the individual.

“Our RA texted us and was like, ‘Yeah I just got him out. He’s a kid from Laville.’ And I was just like, ‘Why is there a kid from Laville in my kitchen? What the hell? That’s kind of weird,’” Gremillion said.

Gremillion didn’t think much more into the situation until late March, he saw an eerily familiar face.

“I wake up, walk outside and the kitchen door is closed. I’m like, ‘Why is it closed? I didn’t even realize there was a door on there.’ I kind of peep in and see some dude laying on the couch–the same guy. The couches, again, are pushed together. I kind of just nodded at him and left.”

Gremillion said the man was awake this time and acknowledged Gremillion’s gesture. The man was laying on the pushed-together chairs and on his phone.

Residents started referring to the dorm as “the Motel” and “Hotel Beauregard.”

Gremillion also noticed the kitchen was “trashed.” There was a bunch of food on the ground, including smashed french fries, and the kitchen smelled bad. Gremillion doesn’t know if the man did it but he remains suspicious.

Gremillion believes the man may be friends with a resident in the stack and that the man stays the night after coming back from Tigerland with the friend. However, Gremillion doesn’t know why the man doesn’t sleep in the friend’s room instead of the communal kitchen. 

Executive Director of ResLife Peter Trentacoste reminds students to always be aware of their environments.

“Be vigilant. There are people who don’t want to come into the residence hall just to visit and hang out,” Trentacoste said.

As well as key cards, hard keys and a number of separating doors, Trentacoste said ResLife employs the use of:

• Around 450 cameras across campus

• Staffed buildings with RAs on duty that’ll investigate disturbances

• A “dedicated police force”

• Monitoring ability over who is swiping in when and where.

Trentacoste ensures students that he’s on their team when it comes to safety.

“I’m the father of a future Tiger,” Trentacoste said. “The same things I’ve asked students to do are the same things I ask my family to do. Just because we’re on a college campus doesn’t mean bad things can’t happen.”