Reported burglaries in Allgood Hall raise questions about safety

AU students often use the computer lab in Allgood Hall that was recently vandalized. (photo by Liz Wright)

By Liz Wright | Contributor

Campus police are investigating three burglaries and a case of property damage recently in Allgood Hall of Augusta University's Summerville Campus, where many undergraduate students attend classes.

These cases are all active investigations and have some professors and students confused as to why these cases keep reoccurring within Allgood. The first case of burglary occurred Feb. 4 at the SubConnection and after seven days the sub shop in the Allgood atrium suffered a second burglary. The final burglary occurred Feb. 26 and was labeled second degree.

After talking to the staff within Allgood, University Police Chief James Lyon and Captain Katy Potts attribute the burglaries and vandalism (in the first degree) to possible inner building management not being consistent with locking doors securely.

“We [the police department] do like the lockdowns and the unlocks of the outside of the building, but then there’s been a little bit of lax, possibly, in some other unsecured areas and how they are taken care of internally,” said Potts. “[However,] now we’re locking down the building more and doing more interior checks and more patrols…”

Since the recurring incidents, police have noticed inconsistency in locking doors within Allgood Hall by staff and could be a potential reason for these repeat offenses. However, it might also be due to the automatic doors being hacked or broken, according to Lyon.

“There was an incident where we found one of the automatic doors broken, and that has been resolved, [but] that could have been one of the ways the perps were getting in,” said Lyon.

Owen Woodall, an audio and visual technologist for AU, first reported the vandalism on Feb. 28 after seeing evidence of defacement.

In the IT Department of Allgood, Woodall found vandalism within his office involving property damage and defacement. The damage ranged from racial slurs being written in marker on desks to them being carved into a computer screen with a knife.

The biggest concern was a student finding a knife hidden within a chair in Allgood’s first-floor computer lab.

“There were racial stuff written in marker on our desks and carved into a computer screen,” said Woodall. “The police took the computer to try and maybe get prints off of it.”

Owen Woodall, an audio and visual technologist for AU, first reported the vandalism on Feb. 28, 2022, after seeing evidence of defacement. (photo by Liz Wright)

Woodall expressed feelings of annoyance and aggravation that someone would deface University property.

“Honestly, I was more annoyed than anything. I was like ‘really? We’re back at this point of acting like we’re 10 years old … acting like middle schoolers.’ It was me being more annoyed because of what happened,” said Woodall.

The damage to property also consisted of a knife hidden within a chair at the computer lab, blade pointed upward, which a student found when she inspected it before sitting.

“There was a student who, luckily, she didn’t sit on it. She just happened to notice something was weird and they [the perpetrators] covered the chair with a cushion. I guess she was about to go sit in it and found it before she could get hurt,” said Woodall.

Although Allgood Hall has been repeatedly targeted, University police chose not to warn students or formally inform them because they feel that there is no potential threat to student safety.

“It’s not something we would ordinarily do … these [cases] don’t meet the requirements to justify an emergency notification. We look for a continuous threat to our campus and we don’t view that [hidden knife] incident as a continuous threat. It’s an isolated incident,” said Lyon. “If we found a series of these things occurring, then certainly we would make sure that the University’s community was aware. But it’s not something we believe is going to impact student safety on an ongoing basis.”

However, due to this choice, some students are very concerned about their safety on school property, and most are unaware of the recent burglaries and vandalism that took place within Allgood Hall.

“Hearing what happened at Allgood is actually very concerning for me and for my friends,” said Sarah Sachy, a freshman at AU. “It makes me a lot more cautious when I sit down.”

“When I go somewhere, it makes me more alert and to look out for things like that so that my other classmates don’t get hurt,” she said.

According to Lyon, campus police are actively investigating the burglaries to the SubConnection and the property damage to the IT Department within Allgood Hall, and are taking proactive steps to mitigate any future concerns by adding more patrols and ensuring more consistency in lockdowns.

“Since these incidents have occurred, we’ve taken the steps to say okay we’re taking control of the outside of the building and the inside of the building to make sure things are being locked down,” said Chief Lyon.

Potts said both campus staff and police have to actively work together to secure the buildings on campus to better secure students’ safety.

“We’re going above everything because we do take the safety of our students, and our staff, and faculty very seriously,” said Potts.

Sachy said. she hopes any further vandalism can be prevented in order to stop any hate messages from being sent around campus.

“Hearing the racial slurs being carved into the computers is very concerning and saddening,” she said. “It really hurts to hear that people are still out there doing that just to spread a message of hate.”

Contact Liz Wright at elizwright@augusta.edu.