By RaShayla Daniels
At least 118 reported incidents occurred in the residence halls on Texas Tech’s campus between Sept. 1 and Oct. 4.
Capt. Stephen Hinkle of the Texas Tech University Police Department (TTUPD) said bicycles and personal property thefts as well as criminal mischief are amongst the most common offenses occurring in the residence halls, and 99 percent of victims leave their belongings unattended and unsecured.
“The thefts range from anywhere from people leaving their rooms unlocked, so people will just walk in the room and take something,” Hinkle said. “We can either consider that a theft or burglary of a habitation because that’s where our students live.”
Hinkle, who has worked at TTUPD for 16 years, said he encourages students to be more responsible. At least 20 bicycles have been stolen from resident hall bike racks and at least four burglaries of a habitation have been reported this semester, according to the TTUPD website.
Missing Something?
Weymouth Hall community adviser Nick Odiase did not know bike thefts were such a common occurrence this year. However, at least five bikes were reported missing from Weymouth bike racks within the first month of the semester, according to daily police logs on the TTUPD website.
With all the people residing in the Chitwood/Weymouth area, Odiase said, it could be easy for someone to walk away with someone else’s bike, unseen.
“I don’t know how the other complexes are doing it, but I feel like in Chitwood/Weymouth, it’s because of the high amount of students,” Odiase said. “If everybody’s doing something at once, nobody’s really going to notice one guy trying to cut it.”
When an incident is reported to TTUPD, Hinkle said, the officer on the scene will always ask the victims several questions regarding the last time they saw their property.
“We go through a little gamut of questions with them,” Hinkle said. “Then, of course, we check out the swap meets around here, the flea market, the pawn shops. We’ve actually had pretty good success recovering bikes. There are a lot stolen, but we’ve had a decent number recovered.”
First-year nursing student Kirstin Hood, a Chitwood resident, said she does not ride a bike, but was surprised to hear about bikes and personal items being stolen on campus.
Sarah Self-Walbrick/The Hub@TTU
“I just always, like, wonder why,” Hood said. “You know, like, why would you need something like that? Why do you want to go and just break into someone’s room; like, what do you need? It’s just a weird thought process to think about.”
Since being in college, Hood said, she has become more cautious and aware of her surroundings. She said college can be a scary place, so it is important to make sure personal items are with you at all times or locked up. She encourages all students to take the same precautions.
“When you’re walking from the parking lot to the dorm room or anything like that, even if you do see something like that, like someone taking [another person’s] personal items or anything, you just wanna report it or talk to them about it or anything,” Hood said.
Exit Signs Are ‘In’
Hinkle said students commonly report stolen personal belongings, but apparently, hot items to loot are the emergency exit signs around the Chitwood and Weymouth Residence Halls.
“For some reason, the college students love exit signs, so they rip them out the ceiling and take them,” Hinkle said.
He blames the fad of the missing exit signs on alcohol.
“People go out, get drunk, come back to the dorms and think it’s fun to bust ceiling tiles,” Hinkle said. “So, that’s something that happens every year.”
According to the daily police reports on the Tech police website, there have been at least 13 reported incidents in which one or more exit signs were stolen or damaged in the process of being taken.
Odiase, a junior psychology and pre-medicine student with two years of experience as a community adviser at Weymouth, an all-male resident hall, said the missing exit signs are some of the strangest ordeals he has come across as an adviser.
“Sometimes I’ve found exit signs thrown down, like, a stairwell, and they’ll just [be] broken at the bottom of a stairwell,” Odiase said, describing his inspection rounds. “Sometimes during room checks at the end of a semester or the beginning of the semester or whatever, you’ll find three or four exit signs stacked up on each other, like they keep them as trophies.”
Odiase said a part of his routine is to look for things out of place, such as missing exit signs and damage to school property, because it is important in ensuring the guys living in the building are safe at all times.
Under the Influence
As a community adviser, Odiase said, it is important for him to maintain positive relationships with the younger crowd, since Weymouth houses all freshmen. But when it comes to following rules and keeping the proper residence hall etiquette, he does not take any misbehavior lightly – especially alcohol-related.
“I was hired as a community adviser; that’s what I do,” Odiase said. “I document any policy violations if I see them or not. If they’re cool with me, like if the residents are cool with me, I’m sorry it doesn’t change anything. If you’re violating policy, then you’re violating policy – that’s it. Sometimes it’s hard, but it has to be done.”
At least 13 minor-in-possession (M.I.P.) or consumption-of-alcohol cases, along with nine public intoxication reports and 14 possession of marijuana, drugs and/or paraphernalia cases, were reported within the first month of the fall semester, according to the Tech police daily crime logs.
Of the alcohol-related reports, 53.8 percent occurred at Coleman Hall, another freshman housing facility, located near the College of Media & Communication building.
Explore Tech’s residence halls with this interactive storymap!
Police reports show two incidents were reported to police at Gates Hall. However, first-year community adviser Manuel “Meme” Morales, a junior electronic media and communications major, said drug and alcohol cases have been what he sees most frequently in his work.
“I’ve had many occasions where I’ve had to knock on people’s door for being loud and alcohol being involved, that kind of thing,” Morales said. “And, quite honestly, that’s probably the biggest issue that I’ve faced. I would say it’s probably maybe 60 percent alcohol, and the rest of it’s probably smoking and marijuana.”
Morales said campus police are not contacted in many alcohol-related cases at Gates. Instead, the community leaders are trained in dealing with students under those circumstances. He said his job is to mostly fill out incident reports describing the cases. There are strict guidelines the advisers must follow in those situations. Tech police is only called when a student is not complying with the procedure.
“They’re pretty scared already, so when you say ‘you either handle it with me or you handle it with the TTUPD,’ it’s a pretty easy choice for them,” Morales said.
Once the incident report is filed, Morales said, the case is sent to Student Conduct, which administers a punishment—how harsh, Morales said he did not know.
Added Morales: “But, when it comes to marijuana use, it’s something we don’t touch. It’s something we don’t even handle.”
According to the police logs and Hinkle, those arrested by TTUPD for marijuana, drugs and paraphernalia possession were taken to Lubbock County Jail and are subject to class B and class C misdemeanor charges.
Morales said he recently won adviser awards from the Texas Tech Residence Hall Association and the National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH), a national organizations that recognizes the top 1 percent of leaders living on campus.
Morales said his strategy is to keep his peers focused on school in ways to which they can relate. He uses his own favorite role models and tools to get through to them.
“I have the kind of relationship with my residents that they can come to me if they just want to chill and relax, that kind of thing,” he said. “I’ve had multiple Cowboys watch parties in my room—they’ll come in, and they’ll just chill.”
He said the goal is making connections and relating to one another.
Morales said he thinks good behavior within the residential halls comes down to students being responsible and understanding why they came to Tech in the first place. He said it is about having the right values instilled in them, and community advisers are tasked with bringing that into play and keeping students under control.
Odiase professed a similar philosophy in engaging with the students on his floor. He said he wants to connect with the freshmen and make sure they figure out their paths in life. A lot of people get caught up in the party life when they go to college, he said, but them there is more to college than drugs and alcohol.
If someone is getting in trouble with either substance, it is probably due to peer pressure, he said. These student may want to reconsider with whom they hang out.
“Don’t do something you’re not okay with just to be friends with someone,” Odiase said. “If they try and make you do that, then they’re not a real friend.”
Added Odiase: “Also, just be yourself. Mom was right all those years… Just be yourself because, with the size of this campus, odds are there is going to be someone like you, and when you’re yourself around your friends that like you for your actual self, then you’ll have the best time in college.”
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