There’s a reason the windows of Kresge’s first floor are now tinted. There’s also a reason why Asbury security is conducting training for resident assistants and desk workers on how to handle emergencies.
In Oct. 2018, a resident noticed a man walking his dog on Kresge’s grass but didn’t think much of it, until she saw him staring at her.
“There was one day I missed class and I was sitting at my desk, and last year was a really hard year, and I was sitting at my desk just crying … I look up and he’s standing in the mulch looking, like staring at me,” she said.
The resident, whom we’ll call Kat, immediately reported the incident to Resident Director Kim Levengood, who was skeptical at first.
“I would say, like most things, I was questioning, ‘What are students experiencing?’… I have to be skeptical in most things,” Levengood said. She soon learned that her resident’s fears were justified.
More students noticed the same man walking on the sidewalk, grass and mulch in front of Kresge, and peering into their windows. They also reported the incidents to Levengood.
Kat said she was told to keep her blinds down to deal with the situation; however, her blinds were broken. She said her blinds had been broken for roughly a year and had repeatedly put the issue on her hall’s maintenance list. A few days after the man first looked in her window, Asbury replaced Kat’s blinds.
Kat said she saw the man, who has since been banned from campus, walking his dog and looking in Kresge windows multiple times every day. Asbury has not publicly identified the man.
“He would come at noon, get back around five, both times he would do his walkthrough and then once or twice at night,” she said.
“It wasn’t just him like standing outside our window looking in, it was like an evil glare, like it was so intentional,” Kat added.
Christian Ministries and Intercultural Studies major Bailey Sawka reported in late October that her window was pushed open during the night.
Since the air conditioning unit in her room was not working, Sawka said she kept her window open one night because the room was hot. Sawka said she heard tapping on her blinds and window.
“I was freaking out and I reached down from my lofted bed and just kind of shut the window,” she said. “I didn’t lock it because I couldn’t reach [the locks] and I didn’t want to get off my bed because I was nervous, and then it got shoved open.”
The next day Sawka noticed footprints in the mulch in front of her room and handprints on her window. She said she made a report to Asbury security and the Wilmore Police Department, which said patrols in the area would be increased.
Asbury Director of Safety and Security, David Hay, said that in fall 2018, he knew of Sawka’s report and another from a student about what she believed was a camera flash in her window. But, Hay said, he was not aware of other reports of a so-called “peeping Tom.”
Throughout the year, Kresge residents said they reported incidents of suspicious behavior regarding the same man to resident assistant Rebekah Habeger, who said she kept in contact with Levengood and Hay.
“I emailed David Hay Oct. 27 [2018] for the first time about the issue,” said Levengood.
Hay said students should not assume that a situation has been reported properly if they did not talk to switchboard or the police themselves.
“Kim [Levengood] does a very good job of communicating with security and with me; I don’t know what happened but we were not aware of a peeping Tom issue until Jan. 31,” said Hay. “My concern was residents felt like we were not listening to them, but we didn’t know anything about that.”
Some students said they did not feel heard or believed about what was going on.
“Toward the end of the year, we were told to call switchboard every time we saw him, but we were not told that until April,” Kat said.
Wilmore police became more involved after a student from another dorm walked by Kresge and saw a man on the grass looking in windows and called the police. In late April, every resident on Kresge First West filed police reports.
Wilmore Police Chief William Craig said, at one point last spring, an officer talked to the man to make him aware there were complaints against him.
Levengood said that a few days after residents filed police reports, she was driving behind Kresge and saw the man on Asbury’s grass looking into windows. Levengood immediately got out of the car and advised him not to be on Asbury property.
“I was in high steam at that point so I don’t remember exactly what I said,” Levengood explained. “But just making sure that they knew that they were unwelcome on our grass [and] what they were making our women feel like.”
The next day, Asbury sent the man a certified letter banning him from university property. Levengood said she received an email apology from him. He has not been seen on the property since.
Hay explained that security either needed photographic evidence of the man on Asbury property, or they needed a person of authority, in this case Levengood, to be able to identify the man in order to ban him.
Hay and Wilmore detective Melanie Welch met with the county prosecutor who concluded there was not enough evidence to charge the man with a crime, though he could be charged with trespassing if he is spotted on campus.
Residents said they had gathered photo and video evidence of the man outside Kresge, but it was unclear if he was actually on the grass near the dorm.
Welch explained that the law has no expectation of privacy if a window is open and a person is on public property, such as a sidewalk.
Welch also said that the witness statements from students, in this case and others like it, need to be current.
“[If the reports] don’t come to us until six months later, there’s nothing we can do,” he said.
Hay said it’s important students know the university’s protocol for emergencies.
“Students should call 911, but then also call switchboard, so security can respond and assist first responders,” Hay said. “If no emergency exists, residents are told to contact security to ensure we can document the incidents.”
