It is the hope of students, and their parents, who choose to dedicate another four years of their lives to earn a good education and life experience to do just that; but interruptions, frustrations and unexpected events are just as inevitable in their college career.
A recent incident in a residential hall at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has brought into question the safety of students who live on campus.
On Feb. 2, at 11:42 p.m., a resident assistant (RA) from Baker Hall called the UL Lafayette Police Department (ULPD) about a suspected drug violation, when they smelled marijuana coming from a certain dorm.
According to Sergeant Lance Frederick, public information officer, a ULPD officer responded to the call and visited the dorm; the resident of the dorm gave permission to the officer to search the residence. While searching, the officer found a male subject hiding in a closet.
ULPD identified the subject and learned that he had an active warrant for resisting an officer (RS 14:108) issued by the Department for an incident in which he was involved previously in September 2024.
Officials transported the subject to the Lafayette Parish Sheriff ’s Office jail and booked him, further unveiling that he had two additional active warrants: armed robbery (RS 14:64) and attempted first-degree murder (RS 14:30).
The subject had these two pre-existing active warrants at the time of an incident, which took place at the University in September last year. According to a ULPD police report, on Sept. 26, at 8:09 p.m., officers responded to a physical fight, in front of Chick-fil-A by the Student Union, between the subject and another party. Both parties did not pursue charges.
“While investigating the fight, the same individual gave false information to our officers. After, it was learned that it wasn’t that person’s information, and we found their information, they put a warrant out for his arrest for providing false information, which is resisting an officer,” Frederick said.
According to RS 14:108(B), resisting an officer includes, but is not limited to, providing false information about one’s identity. Officials reason that the subject provided false information to avoid proper identification and the revealing of his two initial warrants for armed robbery and attempted first-degree murder. At this time, it is unclear how the subject entered Baker Hall.
Dawn Miller, the director of property management for the Office of University Housing and the Student Union, took the time to speak on this matter.
According to Miller, in order to enter most residential halls, students must scan their University ID card to permit entry; upon entry, students must scan their ID again at the front desk before proceeding to their dorm. Afterwards, there are additional locations to scan their IDs before they can reach their dorm. Students ID cards only permit entry into their assigned residential hall and dorm room floor, in most instances.
The front desk in the lobby has scheduled student staff between the hours of 7 a.m. until midnight during all week days to monitor activity and arrival or departure of students and guests.
The Office of University Housing also has security guards from Lofton Staffing & Security Services present at the front desk from midnight until 7 a.m. all week. Currently, every residential hall has one security guard, with the exception of Agnes Edwards Hall, which has a security guard on the second, third and fourth floors, Miller explained.
Both student staff and security guards are required to carry out the same procedures for student resident entry and guest policies.
The subject of interest was found before midnight, therefore likely having entered prior to security guard arrival. Miller confirmed, “There was a student staff scheduled to be there,” and that this student staff was present at the desk.
Frederick shared that there are certain times of the day where the flow of traffic into and out of the residential halls is overwhelming and hard to monitor, one such time being after dinner. “If you’re a student worker or one security guard […] you have to have a physical barrier in place to queue a line to get them in,” Frederick said.
Although the mode of entry remains with student ID scans, when large groups of students are entering a hall at once, people tend to hold the doors open for one another, overriding the individual need to scan an ID and simultaneously missing proper identification.
“From what we can tell, the resident let them in, so when the resident came through, the guest came with them. They did not sign in at the front desk,” Miller shared.
Based on these events, there was no chargeable crime in any of the events that unfolded that night. There was neither any evidence suggesting the host knew about the subject’s active warrants nor physical, attainable amounts of narcotics at the scene for an arrest, by law. However, there were major housing policies broken, such as having a non-registered guest inside the residential dorm and alleged drug use.
According to the UL Lafayette Housing Handbook, students may have guests at their residence, but should accompany them at all times; guests of the opposite sex are only allowed during visitation hours, marked from 10 a.m. to 12 a.m.
A guest can be a student who visits a residential hall different from their assigned hall, a student of the opposite sex in the same residential hall or a non-student that is or is not affiliated with the University. Different procedures follow for overnight stays.
The Vermilion visited several residential dorms as a guest to understand the policies followed by the front desk staff.
The main entrance, front desk of Baker, Huger and Agnes Edwards halls had a student staff at the time of visitation. There was a physical guest sign-in sheet book, which asked for basic identification information of the guest and the student resident host, the date and time of check-in and check-out. The Vermilion voluntarily signed in, as none of the front desk staff inquired about or required it. Most students at these residential halls scanned their IDs only at the main entrance door, but rarely ever at the front desk.
The Vermilion also reached out to students at Louisiana State University (LSU), another public institute, to understand their housing policies.
Jyrah Leday, a junior, and Sean Stephenson, a sophomore, at LSU, shared that residents must scan their LSU ID to enter their hall and, in some cases, to enter their dorm room.
According to the LSU Living on Campus Handbook, LSU-affiliated guests must present their LSU ID when requested by an RA or employee. If the guest is not affiliated with LSU, they are required to meet their student host at the Residential Life community’s front door. The guests are to be escorted by the student host at all times and can be asked to present a state or federal ID by an RA or employee.
Hence, both UL Lafayette and LSU have similar guidelines and policies in place for student residents and guests.
What this incident brings to light, however, is the overall safety at UL Lafayette.
It is essential to note that there are already security measures in place to ensure everyone is protected. Nevertheless, this incident merely shows how one mishap, such as holding the door open for others, not scanning an ID at a specific location or student staff not upholding their job’s procedures, can lead to possibly much harsher consequences.
University housing, administration and law enforcement are actively attempting to find solutions to prevent future instances alike.
Miller said, “We definitely need to look at how can we enhance our front desk security to where we have a little bit more control over students coming in, non-students coming in, and how to properly educate our students on how important it is to stop at the desk, register your guest. We’re not going to tell you, ‘You can’t have a guest.’ We just need to know who’s in the building.”
Being a student staff at a residential hall front desk is, for some, their first job; hence, educating them more thoroughly about the procedures they must follow is another goal of the University.
The Office of University Housing and ULPD are also working towards increasing ULPD presence at the residential halls.
Cade Roy, the president of the Student Government Association and a senior political science major, shared, “We as students often also have to be more cautious about […] who we’re bringing onto campus and into dorm halls, and especially if we just met them and they’re not a student.”
“You see problems, and we’ve heard it too, […] at night, even with the night guards,” Roy continued.
The University is currently working on a form that is exclusive for staff and RAs, at this time, to report any issues regarding the security guards.
The University is actively working towards not only implementing new safety measures, but also educating student residents about what individual procedures they must all follow to protect themselves and those around them.
These implementations are planned to go into effect as immediately as possible.
“We want to make sure that the residents understand that we are not doing these policies to make their life on campus miserable, it’s more because we have to think of everyone […] how it would affect a building of almost 500 students if something terrible would happen,” Miller said.
“This is their home […] everybody comes from a different background and a different home environment, and we want to try to make everyone that moves into the building comfortable and enjoy their time in the building,” Miller stated.
Dr. Patricia Cottonham, the vice president of the Office of Student Affairs, shared, “The entire University, especially the president of the University, is committed to providing a safe, nurturing […] space for our students anywhere around campus; in this particular case, we are talking about […] those students who live on campus.”
“We realize that this is home away from home, and we want our students to have a […] very good experience while they are here.”
“The University will continue to have discussions, we will continue to have partnerships, we will continue to address this issue until […] it’s handled,” Cottonham stated.
These discussions alone have brought to question the mere nature of events the University can work to prevent, but it appears that the truth of it all, in this case, is that existing and future safety measures alone will not entirely ensure someone’s security.
It is rather the collective effort put forth by all individuals–University student residents, staff, security guards, law enforcement, faculty and administration–that will ultimately make sure similar events, either of lesser or more seriousness, will be prevented.
UL Lafayette and all its facilities continue to remain as a drug-free and gun-free campus.
The Franklin Police Department shared with The Vermilion that the subject is currently in jail at St. Mary’s Sheriff ’s Office.