By Katie Oglesby, Editor-in-Chief
Tuesday afternoon, Executive Director of Campus Safety Alex Wiltz sent out a campus-wide email outlining the facts about the “suspicious person” on campus Sunday and addressing the “misinformation and rumors that have persisted since that incident.”
Wiltz noted that the individual did not enter any campus residence halls, and further explained that after hearing about the confrontation students had with him, Campus Safety and the Gettysburg Police Department (GPD) went looking for him. They informed the campus community Sunday night when they heard he had returned to campus.
“We appreciate the students whose report to us resulted in him being quickly apprehended by GPD,” Wiltz said. “Importantly, there is no information to support that the individual was on campus to engage in malicious behavior.”
Wiltz continued by saying that there were numerous reports Monday night about other suspicious individuals on campus. Campus Safety responded to these, but they turned out to be other students.
“There has been continued inflation of these events, which has placed members of the campus community in fear,” Wiltz said. “Please stop spreading these rumors.”
Wiltz noted at the end of the email that students should always contact Campus Safety or the police to report suspicious activity. As well, he said students should contact them if they had a different experience than described over the past two days.
Director of Residential Education Danielle Phillips sent an email to her student staff this morning on a similar note.
She explained that this email had a few purposes, “includ[ing] thanking them for the work they did this weekend to support their residents during a time when many were anxious and concerned, reminding them that they have resources in Campus Safety and our ResEd on-call system to help answer questions and supply information and resources for them and their residents, and asking them to help ensure that our campus community is receiving accurate information.”
