Wright residents aren’t strangers to shower security issues

Right in the middle of all the Little 500 events, there were serious violations of privacy going on at Wright Quad. Multiple female residents of Wright-Harding made reports of someone filming them while showering. Wright resident D’Onte Montague was arrested a few days later and charged with two counts of voyeurism.

The buildings at Wright are set up in a way that each sub-building (except for the all-women’s wing) can be accessed by any Wright resident, but building like Harding are integrated with the men’s floors. Adam Pierce, a freshman Wright resident who lives on the same floor as Montague, discussed how he “walked through [Harding] the other day because it was raining and it’s the way of getting to the food court without going outside.” The only time you have to swipe your ID is when entering the building from the outside.

Adam Pierce using his student ID to gain access to his area at Wright Quad

While it may be convenient for some, it is concerning for many female residents who are worried about how safe the residence hall actually is. According to a Wright-Harding resident, who requested to remain anonymous, all the women in the house received emails after each reported incident of peeping. She spoke of how unsafe she felt in her own dorm: “Every time I saw an unfamiliar face, I automatically thought I was in danger, especially if it was an unfamiliar male face.”

Unfortunately, this is not the first peeping incident Wright has had. Last semester, there were reports of someone repeatedly looking under the men’s shower stalls of the Hummer/Nichols restrooms, according to Pierce. Interestingly, Montague was not attending IU last semester, but there was a another incident of someone filming Harding women while showering. It was not confirmed if the men’s and women’s incidents were connected, but in the earlier Harding case an IU student who lived in Tulip Tree apartments was arrested.

As one of the oldest dorm on campus, Wright is set up a bit differently. There is one RA per divided building, which consists of three floors.

“There is not quite the same authoritative presence and the only security is security cameras at every entrance. But that’s the stuff they can’t really change,” says Pierce. Most of the other dorms have ID readers to get into a specific building and floor. The anonymous female Harding resident believes installing similar technology at Wright will help decrease the likelihood of peeping happening again as well as helping the female residents feel more secure.

As of now, the university has not released a statement or announced any new security procedures for the dorm.