“We won’t mention the Zipmail. You probably didn’t read it, anyway, so we’ll move on. The important news is that between 2003 and 2006, a pervert was working for Residence Life and Housing. Shaun Harkness was arrested in Illinois on Oct. 21. He is accused of placing a camera in a women’s restroom in Orr Hall and of stealing photographs from women’s dorm rooms.”
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We won’t mention the Zipmail. You probably didn’t read it, anyway, so we’ll move on.

The important news is that between 2003 and 2006, a pervert was working for Residence Life and Housing.

Shaun Harkness was arrested in Illinois on Oct. 21. He is accused of placing a camera in a women’s restroom in Orr Hall and of stealing photographs from women’s dorm rooms. He also threatened a female Akron student via e-mail regarding stolen photos.

He was fired from his job at Northern Illinois University for similar charges: burglary, voyeurism and extortion.

We already don’t feel safe around campus, but now we’re not safe in our own dorm buildings?

At UA, it seems you can’t even take a shower in relative safety.

You can’t really blame the university, though: Harkness had no previous criminal record when he began working here.

But Harkness left UA in June of 2006, and our showers have been pretty safe since then.

In fact, security measures have been strengthened in the dormitories. Showers are regularly inspected and combination locks guard the way to the showers.

We can’t help but wonder if the Rec Center’s showers are checked as regularly.

We hope so.

Those showers are used daily by a lot of people.

And besides the people who are showering, there is a lot of foot traffic through the locker rooms.

There are also the people who change in the locker rooms of the Rec.

Hopefully, those locker rooms haven’t been overlooked. You wouldn’t have to be an employee of the university with a master key to get in there, like Harkness was.

So that’s a bit scarier, for us, than the dorm buildings. We’ve been assured that they are safe.

We suppose we’ll avoid showering in the Rec Center until we’re reassured of our safety. Besides, if we smell bad walking home, maybe we won’t get mugged.

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