Dix Hall residents are left feeling uneasy in their dorms following reports of break-ins. Although it is unclear when the break-ins first began, multiple Simmons students first reported similar situations the night of October 14.
Aliyah Lewis was one of the Dix residents who had an unwelcome encounter that night. In an interview with the Voice, Lewis, a junior Business Administration major, described being asleep and alone in her room, which is typically co-occupied with a roommate. Around 1:45 a.m., she woke up to footsteps and was alerted to a “figure ducked by the end of [her] bed.” Once Lewis screamed, the alleged intruder ran from the room.
Just waking up, she didn’t get a good look at the alleged intruder. “I was just angry. I was confused…I immediately checked my desk to make sure nothing was stolen…but then it just took me forever to fall asleep.” Lewis said.
The allegations were not isolated to one floor of the residence hall. Hazel Desio, a junior Psychology and Women and Gender Studies double major, experienced something similar nearly two hours earlier at midnight. Desio reported being awake on the phone in their single when their doorknob began moving. Once the door opened and the pair locked eyes, the alleged intruder ran.
Both students believed they were alone in their experiences until the following morning.
“I felt like it was probably just a one-off thing. So the next morning it wasn’t, ‘oh my God, I have to make a police report.’ It was, ‘I will email Res Life and CC Public Safety…I didn’t hear from Res Life.” recalled Desio. “And then later in the day, I was hearing more and more reports…on the Simmons Yik Yak page, seeing the discourse.”
Yik Yak, an anonymous college-specific posting app, has become a platform for residents to discuss the break-ins. Polls to gauge students’ feelings have popped up, asking questions regarding the gender identity of who broke into rooms and how they feel about increased public safety presence in response to the incidents.
Adding to the confusion of the situation, days before the multiple alleged incidents, resident assistants for the first and second floor of Dix were changed. This led to a feeling of “ambiguity of who…resource people are,” Desio expressed.
With the increased reports, Vice President for Student Engagement & Dean of Students Rae-Anne Butera sent an email to Dix residents on October 16 addressing safety concerns. In this email, they addressed the hallway lights in Dix shutting off at night automatically and how “this is a general safety concern… [that] also may have contributed to the behavior that is occurring,” which has since been resolved.
Butera also emphasized an increase in a Public Safety presence on the residence campus during the evenings and overnight. Public Safety walkthroughs of Dix were also said to begin October 16. Despite this response, some students were frustrated, wishing they had been informed of earlier incidents.
“The only inkling I had that something was going on with Dix was from the Simmons Confessions page. Like, come on, I’m not gonna believe that. So I just kind of wish [Residence Life] had been a little bit more upfront about it,” Lewis said.
In a statement to the Voice, Butera and Paul Lombardo, Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety at Simmons University, said “The safety and wellbeing of our community is our top priority. Since the start of the fall semester, we have received a few reports about people attempting to enter rooms that are not assigned to them. It is unclear whether these people are mistakenly walking into the wrong room, or something more intentional. As we continue to investigate and work collaboratively with our community to address any issues, we want to remind students about the importance of locking their residence room doors – particularly when sleeping.”
