During the final weekend of September, several fights were reported at University Village at Slippery Rock, an off-campus housing development located on Keister Road. People at the scene of the fights recorded the conflict and the videos were circulated on various social media platforms. The recordings ultimately lead to the university sending a campus-wide email about the incidents on Monday, September 29. While there are several conflicting accounts of the exact details, the main question of security on the premises remains.
The Rocket had the pleasure of interviewing a spokesperson of University Village named Andrew about the security measures of the facility.
“We have a gate, we have doors with RFID, and some of the doors have dead bolt locks on them as well,” Andrew said.
The Rocket also interviewed two anonymous residents of University Village at Slippery Rock, one a junior safety management major and the other a non-student resident. When asked about the safety of the Village, they both had a different responses.
“They have a booth, but I haven’t seen the gates work and haven’t seen a person in the booth,” one anonymous resident said.
This was the case, even at the time of this interview, that the gate was open and not functioning. Residents have noted that the gate has not been in operation for quite some time.
With no way to differentiate between resident and non-resident, many people from outside the SRU community have entered the Village to party. Many unauthorized visitors include students from other colleges as well as high school students.
In the fall of 2024, University Village had private security on Friday and Saturday nights to check to see if people entering actually lived there. At the time of the incident, there was no private security at the gate checking individuals. While Andrew did say that they plan to implement more private security in place, no concrete plans have been made.
When asked about the overall safety on the complex, the anonymous sources offered a first-hand observation of what they see at the facility.
“It definitely isn’t [safe]. You kinda just have to be smart,” the anonymous safety major said.
The other resident had a different response: “I do [feel safe], but I understand how smaller, less confident people feel unsafe.”
When asked about communicating with residents, Andrew said that they do communicate with residents to make sure they’re okay. However, both anonymous sources say they never received any communication (either phone call, text, or email) from University Village regarding the incident.
While the reports from anonymous residents and University Village officials had conflicting views—both on the overall safety of the facility and on the quality of communication—one thing that both anonymous sources and University Village at Slippery Rock agreed on is that the people instigating these fights are not residents of University Village.
“Never residents. Residents party in their homes,” the anonymous resident said.
Andrew from University Village agreed with this sentiment. “From what I understand, a lot of it is high schoolers, a lot of it is people from outside the area, different schools,” he said.
The anonymous resident said that what happens is that non-residents or local high schoolers use social media platforms like YikYak to throw a party in the University Village courtyard. YikYak is an anonymous social media app that allows users to communicate with other users in their direct area. Reports of high schoolers coming to University Village and other off-campus housing is common, but University Village has made it clear.
“This is a property for our residents. Not for high schoolers, or people outside the area.”
