For multiple years, the criminology department utilized a crime lab that was located in the basement of Patterson Hall. This crime lab could hold practice investigations and classes for the students.
This semester, the students were relocated out of their space and began using a house behind McKay Education Building as their crime house.
Emma Sentner and Laci Morio are senior criminology majors who spoke to The Rocket about this new crime house.
The students have only been using this house as their crime lab since the beginning of this semester, though the students shared that it has already been helpful for classes and investigations due to the space feeling more realistic than a classroom.
The students were then informed that there would be a chance the building would be demolished.
“[B]eing in there for criminal investigations, it’s actually really cool. We’ve only had it for this semester, and we’ve already done a lot of stuff in there, and now they might demolish the building,” Sentner said.
The students were unsure if it would happen at the end of the semester or the end of the year.
“A lot of it’s up in the air, and we just want to bring awareness to it because, as crim majors—specifically with the criminal investigations class and then my class, which is true crime murder in PA, those are both classes that are being held there right now—it’s important to have a space where you can set up demonstrations of what crime scenes are going to look like,” Morio said.
“When we were in Patterson, it was really nice, but having it in a house and it’s set up—there’s a living room, there’s bedrooms, there’s bathrooms—you get more of a realistic depiction of what it’s going to be like when you do leave school and if you choose to go into law enforcement,” Morio said.
The students shared that if the crime house gets demolished, they are not sure where they would be placed.
Sentner and Morio also expressed concern that if the class gets put into a classroom again, it might affect the curriculum for forensic minors.
“It’s not realistic. There’s not going to be the hands-on experience that you need for forensics,” Sentner said.
The Criminology Club put together a petition page and plans to voice their concerns to help keep this building standing.
“We’re also trying to spread awareness in word,” Morio said. “And while it is important to criminology majors, we’re also trying to spread awareness to people outside of our major. We were at the Involvement Fair, and we had a lot of people come up to us that were criminology majors or criminology minors, but then we also had education majors and various majors that came up and they were just intrigued.”
The students shared that the building would need renovation with a new roof and draining in the basement.
“It’s not even just for us, but we’re trying to fight for it for the people of Slippery Rock,” Sentner said. “Because that building used to be a doctor’s office and he delivered a bunch of babies in there, a lot of which are current residents of Slippery Rock.”
The Criminology Club has also been hosting various events in the house, including a real-life Clue game.
“We created our own crime scene, put clues all around the house, and people loved it,” Sentner said. “It felt like you were actually in the board game.”
The organization will also be hosting a Haunted House/Fun House for anyone interested. The event will be on Oct. 25 from 10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Criminology House, located at 1132 East Cooper Street.
