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Asoto408 t1_j57874z wrote

Nobody noticed a grown ass man in the dorm?

  • I was just under the impression they have a person to regulate the activity in the dorm to make sure things like this don’t happen*
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meatball77 t1_j58v4bk wrote

Oh, it's worse. There were complaints, I think from one of the parents and they said they couldn't do anything about it because visitors are allowed.

The University is at fault for this. They did not protect the young adults in their care.

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Justforthenuews t1_j5alzgo wrote

Were cops called? Security? Did the school stop investigations? So many possible places of failure here.

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meatball77 t1_j5aqc97 wrote

Nothing. The school told the parents and people that complained that they were overreacting and there wasn't anything they could do because they are allowed to have overnight guests.

The real criminality didn't happen until they were off campus. But he was using the campus and student housing to prey on and recruit the young people. He turned their living room into a place to brainwash and groom those kids.

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Murky_Conflict3737 t1_j5fd35k wrote

I can’t believe that. My university had very strict rules about visitors in the dorms and how long they could stay. Granted, this was a public university, not a small private one.

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meatball77 t1_j5ffktf wrote

Some small liberal arts colleges are really weird and push into being really weird. I'm guessing that is what happened here. It was student housing but it wasn't a dorm, it was a small house with a bunch of students living in it.

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RyVsWorld t1_j58m2ym wrote

I’m wondering the same. I remember when the initial story broke and I’m still very confused how this whole thing came to be. It’s just such a bizarre and sad story.

I remember being in college and i can’t think of any of my classmates that would be cool with an adult living in their dorm. Just all around so weird

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Eyfordsucks t1_j58trcg wrote

Watch the documentary on peacock+. Many people, including parents of the roommates, notified campus authorities and nothing was done.

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Asoto408 t1_j58ujz8 wrote

if a grown man was hanging around the dorms where my daughter was and the authorities did nothing, my foot would’ve been up someone’s ass real quick lol

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Eyfordsucks t1_j58vyzf wrote

Same here. It seems they were a bunch of sophomores in an expensive fancy school away from home and a psychopath moved in under the guise of “visiting his daughter for a night” and then made himself indispensable by grooming them and he never left. He bought them good food, and took over and dictated all social interactions in the dorm. He presented himself as an unconditionally loving parental figure these kids craved. He even researched ways to use cult control methods. They didn’t know what to expect or avoid and didn’t want to upset the status quo (perfect situation for a predator).

Administration and the Dean of students where notified by parents and at least one student. Sarah Lawrence claims allegations weren’t investigated because the dorm was a “private apartment”. Public records reflect it was a registered dorm at the time of the incident.

As soon as real trouble seemed to be brewing he moved them all into his apartment.

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Eyfordsucks t1_j5907b6 wrote

It took six years for the owner of the apartment to get an eviction through the courts. He was a friend of Larry Ray who let him crash in his manhattan apartment thinking it was temporary. Larry brought along a cult and never paid rent while destroying the apartment and relying on squatters rights to keep him housed.

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Eyfordsucks t1_j592bh7 wrote

He’s been convicted and is awaiting sentencing for up to 120 years.

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meatball77 t1_j5a54oi wrote

Which is even more frustrating because kids going to a school like that are more likely to not have the life skills to deal with things like that and the school should be giving them extra support. They weren't seniors, they were sheltered 19 year olds. I'm sure if they'd been having parties with underage drinking they would have dealt with it.

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SpiritedLavishness t1_j5ci3mg wrote

I’m a Sarah Lawrence grad (graduated in 2012). The dorms in which this took place were never patrolled or regulated. I knew several people who had their boyfriends/girlfriends (who didn’t attend SLC) live with them throughout the year. They would go to the dining hall, walk around campus, and no one would do a thing. We had campus security but honestly they were so checked out and didn’t really seem to do much patrolling. In general things were very lax on that campus. Too lax, obviously. It’s also an open campus so that makes it easier for strangers to come to the campus unchecked.

These particular dorms were also equipped with full kitchens and bathrooms (they were built in a single family home type of way) so that could be why this dude was able to get away with what he did for so long - there wasn’t really a reason for him to leave the dorm to begin with, especially if he could convince others to go out and bring back necessities. Hope that helps to clear up how this happened. The school is to blame for its negligence and I hope they will face due punishment. A lot of crazy (deeply unpleasant) things happened on that campus precisely because no one ever cared to make sure students were safe.

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cuddly_carcass t1_j5aq80x wrote

To be fair my RA was also the most reliable and accessible drug dealer in College…

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Asoto408 t1_j5ar1b9 wrote

Hey a drug dealer would probably call some goons to handle a situation like this.

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lolsleepyboi t1_j5jembu wrote

School administrators making the absolute worst possible decision is like an entire genre of news in of itself

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Asoto408 t1_j5jxi5o wrote

Dang people entrust their children to schools yet the schools can’t be trusted.

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Martholomeow t1_j57ab4e wrote

it was off campus housing and he was one of the roommates father

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ANewStartAtLife t1_j57b1gy wrote

It was on campus: "...Slonim Woods 9, a drab two-story brick dorm in the middle of campus."

/u/Asoto408 is spot on with his/her question.

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Martholomeow t1_j57bm7y wrote

if not off campus then the campus isn’t really a closed campus. More like an area in the neighborhood that owns a lot of property. No gates. Similar to NYU

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MidnightSlinks t1_j57m3sg wrote

Similar to almost every college? I've been to a lot of college campuses (athlete) and have never seen one that had gates or restricted movement to/from campus.

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RyVsWorld t1_j59op1d wrote

I mean there are plenty of schools that are gated. But tired ping still stands OP is just taking it off his ass

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BloodBonesVoiceGhost t1_j57r2p3 wrote

> if not off campus then the campus isn’t really a closed campus. More like an area in the neighborhood that owns a lot of property. No gates.

...what college campus has gates? I am not saying that there are zero that fully gate their property, but I have never seen this at a college. I really think you are thinking of private high schools and preparatory schools.

There are a million reasons why it wouldn't make sense to try to gate off an entire college campus:

-Colleges host regular events for the community: sporting events, plays, traveling speakers, concerts. People have to be able to come and go as a variety of events are taking place all day long all across campus.

-Delivery drivers need to be able to reach dorms.

-You have visiting alumni and prospective students or teachers showing up all year-round.

-Staff that can number in the tens of thousands.

-Many students have cars, and unlike private schools or prep schools, they need to be able to come and go whenever they want.

-Many colleges have shuttles that ferry students around campus or off-campus to certain places.

-You frequently have unrelated, third-party businesses in the middle of campuses: think Subway, pizza places, coffee shops, art galleries, book stores.

-On top of all of that, a lot of college campuses (like my two alma maters for instance) are growing fast. New buildings being built, purchased or repurposed almost every year. You think they would want to totally relocate a giant fence a few times a year?

It just makes no sense for college campuses to be fully gated off... and I have never personally seen one that was.

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RyVsWorld t1_j59oqdt wrote

Hofstra University and Fordham university are both gated college campuses

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Dangerous_Golf_7417 t1_j5967xz wrote

Harvard is mostly gated, they close the gates for major events and only let you ok campus if you have a student id.

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BloodBonesVoiceGhost t1_j5978ac wrote

Hmmm, I swear I walked through Harvard's campus in Cambridge in 2006 when I visited my friend in Boston, but if you say so, sure.

EDIT: I just googled it and Harvard is spread across three distinct campuses across Boston and has 15 museums that claim to be open to the public and they have a self-guided tour that you can activate online as your peruse their Cambridge campus.

I swear you guys are mistaking the tiniest parts of these massive universities' "campuses" as their entire campus... it's a little silly.

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Dangerous_Golf_7417 t1_j597fvm wrote

Like I said, they only close the gates for major events (graduation, VIPs on campus, etc--i wasn't there but I think they also locked down during the Boston Bomber search). 99% of the time it's open to the public who walk through one of 10 or so open gates to get to the museums, statues, etc. And I'm talking about Harvard College, which contains most undergrad classrooms and dorms and is most relevant to this article, not the med school across the river or anything. Hope you enjoyed the campus tour!

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BloodBonesVoiceGhost t1_j597oox wrote

My bad! I read too quickly and I thought you said they have it gated except for major events. (ie your first sentence was "it is mostly gated" and I skimmed after that.) I guess I could see that they would have more than enough resources to shut down access to campus for major events. That does make total sense.

Thanks for clarifying!!

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Dangerous_Golf_7417 t1_j5ajetr wrote

No problem. Guess my clarification wasn't that well received by anyone else, lol.

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[deleted] t1_j58m4q8 wrote

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aroc91 t1_j58muwv wrote

I've been to a ton of colleges and universities in WI, IL, and TX and none of them have had globally restricted entry to the campus. Some have parking lots that are gated off after hours and stuff like that, but not wholly closed or even close.

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[deleted] t1_j58n5zb wrote

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BloodBonesVoiceGhost t1_j58o7nq wrote

It's not an East Coast thing. I went to school in Massachusetts, and interviewed at schools in Maine and New Hampshire. Visited friends at Dartmouth, Brown, George Washington, American. Went to sports competitions at Whitman, Reed, Pacific, Gonzaga, Stanford (on the west coast). None of them are gated. Gating an entire college campus would make no fucking sense (except maybe in very rare exceptions). You seem to not understand how large many colleges and universities are.

Can you show some pictures or provide some examples or evidences of schools that are fully gated?

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[deleted] t1_j58oznv wrote

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BloodBonesVoiceGhost t1_j58pclb wrote

You said TWO examples. Out of 4,300 colleges in the country. TWO. And yet you claim that, let me quote you:

>Almost all campuses are gated…what?

...and your evidence... so far, is TWO. Out of 4,300.

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aroc91 t1_j58niuh wrote

East coast thing maybe? I don't know what to tell you. I can drive freely through any major university here in TX and have done so through quite a few.

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Teantis t1_j58yzos wrote

I went to college in the east coast. Visiting friends at other schools all up and down the east coast. I've never seen a gated campus, like the whole campus.

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[deleted] t1_j58nn99 wrote

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aroc91 t1_j58o0jh wrote

I was originally simply responding to your assertion "Almost all campuses are gated", which was a bit of a bold claim and entirely contrary to my own experience, not denying there are gated campuses.

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[deleted] t1_j58o3pd wrote

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aroc91 t1_j58ob8v wrote

The issue is you made a pretty absolute claim that most colleges are gated. I'm not looking for an argument, just pointing out where you painted yourself into a corner. Peace.

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BloodBonesVoiceGhost t1_j58p108 wrote

Which other colleges have you been to that have this? Since you have been to so many that do. I really believe you that some do, but there's just no way that it's the norm. No way. I have been to schools in huge cities, tiny towns, mid-sized cities. It just isn't practical to gate a massive school and direct all traffic through an individual gate. Most college campuses are bustling hubs of activity, with people coming and going all day long. It just doesn't make logistical sense to throttle traffic at a gate around the entire thing (rather than, for instance, having card readers on individual doors on individual buildings).

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[deleted] t1_j58p51m wrote

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BloodBonesVoiceGhost t1_j58pghz wrote

...so are you just talking about swiping an ID card to enter a building??? Because that is pretty clearly not what the rest of us are talking about.

Yes, obviously needing ID cards to access certain buildings is common. (And I bet that even on the campuses you've talked about, there are certain buildings that certain times of day require no ID to access... eg the student union building or the administration offices).

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[deleted] t1_j58pkbq wrote

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BloodBonesVoiceGhost t1_j58prz2 wrote

Okay then no. That's not remotely common.

You think a university of ~50,000 students like University of Michigan can hire 4,000+ security guards to stand at all entrances at all hours of the day???

And it certainly isn't common at smaller private schools like my alma mater or Sarah Lawrence (both of which have student bodies around 1500).

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[deleted] t1_j58pw78 wrote

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BloodBonesVoiceGhost t1_j58qa64 wrote

It totally does make sense for some campuses in rougher parts of some cities to do this. I didn't know that any did, but now that you share it, and I have clicked into your link, I can see how it makes perfect sense for some schools. Thank you for sharing your experience. It's cool that we both got to learn something today.

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Martholomeow t1_j588dyc wrote

have you been to NYC?

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BloodBonesVoiceGhost t1_j58ofz3 wrote

Yes. Columbia isn't gated. Cooper Union isn't gated. NYU isn't gated. The New School isn't gated. Hell even a lot of the high schools in NYC aren't gated.

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Teantis t1_j58ywow wrote

So weird. What a weird belief that guy has.

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NYR_LFC t1_j587xyq wrote

Just stop. You're making yourself sound even more dumb

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SpiritedLavishness t1_j5dtv1z wrote

It wasn’t off campus housing. This took place within the main dorms on campus. The college should also be held accountable for its negligence. Even when I was there, it was clear that the administration and “security” didn’t care about our safety or wellbeing.

Source: I’m an SLC grad. I didn’t live in these particular dorms but I did live in similar, single family home style housing, and can confirm that no one ever checked who came in and out of those dorms. We basically had squatters (other students’ boyfriends/girlfriends who weren’t enrolled at SLC) living for free in the dorms all year.

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