Students on the Sept. 8 Mertz Hall Intruder

It was after 9 p.m. Sept. 8 when first-year Elizabeth Nolan was returning to her dorm room on the 19th floor of Mertz Residence Hall from the Information Commons. As she entered the building, she noticed a man pacing restlessly near the entrance to the building. 

When he tried to follow her inside as she scanned her student ID, she “slammed the door in his face” and messaged her roommate Leah Cerulli to warn her of the potential danger. 

The man, whose identity is still unknown to law enforcement but is believed to be unaffiliated with Loyola, successfully entered the building at about 9:45 p.m. and entered multiple student rooms on the fourth floor of the residence hall after bypassing three security checkpoints. He then fled the scene before Campus Safety arrived, The Phoenix reported.

The doors at the main entrance of Mertz are locked for everyone except residents and RA’s. Once a resident enters the building, they’re required to scan their ID at the front desk before entering into the elevator lobby, or be checked in as a guest if they don’t live in the building. After exiting the elevator, every floor has an additional locked door to scan through before a resident can enter the hall of individual dorm rooms, which also each have locks on their doors.

What followed the Sept. 8 incident was about 22 hours of confusion and rumors being spread among the student body, including non-residents of Mertz, through social media platforms such as Snapchat, Reddit and Fizz.

Some posts claimed the man had been armed, a sexual assault had occurred and property had been stolen, all of which were said to be untrue in a statement sent from the Division of Student Development to the community Sept. 9 and signed by Vice President for Student Development Dr. Keith Chamagne and Provost Douglas Woods.

The case is being investigated as one of criminal trespass of property and battery, defined in the statement as “unwanted touch of a non-sexual nature,” according to the statement. 

First-year journalism major Mira Attia Saad said she and her roommate, Alirose King, were sitting on their beds when the intruder opened their door and tried to make conversation with them by claiming he was new to the school and he lived on the 19th floor — an all girls floor, Attia Saad said.

King, a first-year business major, said when the intruder first entered their room he did so without knocking, and then claimed he was looking for his friend. 

Attia Saad said the man, who looked to be about 30-years-old, was resistant to leaving until she and King began yelling at him to get out. After he left, she said he entered multiple other rooms on the floor, which prompted her to inform her Resident Assistant of the incident. 

The fourth floor RA wasn’t available for comment on the incident.

First-year biology major Lillian Davis said the intruder “barged” into her room unexpectedly and took a seat in her chair. By the time he got into Davis’ room, she said the RA on duty had already been notified of his intrusion into the building and was in the hallway looking for him, but he escaped while she was informing the RA of his whereabouts.

Attia Saad and Davis both said the lock on the door by the elevators on the fourth floor had been broken since the beginning of the school year, but when they both independently tried to inform Campus Safety of this after the incident they said they didn’t believe them. Attia Saad said Campus Safety seemed convinced someone on the fourth floor had let him in intentionally.

A university spokesperson didn’t respond directly to these student claims.

King said although she noticed the door on the fourth floor was unlocked in the days leading up to the incident, she didn’t know anything was abnormal about it since the lock had been that way since she moved in and she assumed it was supposed to be like that.

The lock has since been fixed and now locks automatically upon closure, according to Attia Saad.

Attia Saad said the university used the incident as an example during the mandatory campus safety training for first-years, where she felt they blamed the event on students and took no responsibility for it themselves. 

In a slideshow for the training, the university wrote a series of bullet points on how the suspect made it to the fourth floor of the building undetected. 

“Suspect loitered outside entrance,” the slideshow read. “Piggybacked into first door after student; Suspect loitered in lobby, then piggybacked with group of students; Suspect loitered in elevator lobby; Suspect bypassed upper floor swipe. Issue was known to residents but unreported; Suspect entered rooms w/ unlocked doors; Few calls to Campus Safety — Instead, posts online and calls to parents.”

In this case, piggybacking is a reference to students allowing visitors behind them to enter the building without scanning their badges. 

A Loyola spokesperson wrote in an email to The Phoenix the university remains diligent in checking the safety of entrances and security checkpoints. 

“The security of residence hall doors is a priority, and Campus Safety, Facilities, and Residence Life continuously work to ensure that all security measures are functioning properly,” a spokesperson wrote. “Campus Safety assesses the security needs of all campus buildings and adjusts measures accordingly. Residents are encouraged to report any concerns about building security immediately, so they can be addressed in real time.”

Attia Saad said it was aggravating to see them say the doors went unreported, because, even when they were reported, the university was unwilling to believe them or fix the issue.

First-year advertising and public relations major Leah Cerulli, who lives on the 19th floor of Mertz, said she was aggravated by the university’s statement and presentation at the safety training because she thought it was very critical of student’s actions.

“They were basically ridiculing the entire student body in Mertz for going to social media first and not contacting campus security as if that isn’t the first thing that a majority of people on the floor did,” Cerulli said. “It’s not our fault that Campus Security didn’t get here fast enough for the guy. Obviously things are going to circulate on social media.”

Cerulli said she thought it was important to remember Mertz is a first-year dorm — residents who were affected were only just beginning to adjust to living on their own.

“We are literally freshmen,” Cerulli said. “We are just kids.”

Due to the size of the building and how fast the situation developed, Cerulli said she thinks communicating over social media is a very reasonable thing to do as a way to keep everyone informed. 

“People have a right to also post about it because not everybody has everybody’s numbers in this 19 floor building,” Cerulli said. “So if somebody posts something on a story that’s probably the best way you’re going to get the word out until Campus Security makes their statement.”

Champagne reminded students of the value of being an active bystander in potentially dangerous situations in his Sept. 9 statement to the community.

“I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone of the importance of vigilance,” Champagne wrote in the statement. “We all play a crucial role in creating a safe and caring community. Please be mindful of who is entering the building behind you and take an active role in ensuring the safety of your fellow students.”

Attia Saad said the university didn’t send out any information or tell students to lock their doors while the man was in the building and before Campus Safety arrived, which left her feeling in the dark about her safety. The only notification she said she received was a message from her RA once the man had left and the general notice from Campus Safety the next day.

The university said they didn’t send out a crime alert because the situation didn’t qualify as severe enough to warrant one, according to the statement. A Loyola Alert was also not used because it didn’t meet the criteria of being an on-campus incident which posed “a significant threat to life or bodily harm and require[s] immediate action,” according to the university website.

“Our crime alert notification system alerts University community members when there are critical incidents and threats to safety,” Champagne wrote in the statement. “This includes robberies, sexual assaults, aggravated assaults, vehicle thefts or hate crimes.”

Champagne wrote if more information is brought forward about the incident in the future which would qualify it under any of those criteria, a crime alert may still be released. 

Davis said the experience, which happened in her second week of college, made her pay more attention to what was happening around her. 

“It made me very aware that not everyone that can get in here doesn’t have always the best intentions,” Davis said. “It made me more aware of what I leave out in my room and always locking the doors when I am leaving even if it is just for a short period of time.”

King said after the incident the university put up dividers between the entrance and exits of the buildings as a way to help control the flow of traffic in and out of the building. She also said there was briefly an additional front desk worker helping to check in and scan students into the building, but it was reduced back down to one about a week after the event. 

Attia Saad said the university’s unwillingness to take any responsibility was concerning for her. 

“The fact that it happened in the first place, you can forgive that, but not when you’re going to put the blame on us,” Attia Saad said.