Todd Vanderwerff

A potential threat from an individual led SDSU officials to lock down the residence halls Monday.

Officials decided to lock down the buildings after a man appeared on campus and was threatening towards some students.

“There is an individual who is not a student … who was behaving in an inappropriate manner,” said Dean of Student Affairs Marysz Rames.

In a lockdown, the front doors of the residence halls are locked all day. Normally, those doors are unlocked from 8 a.m. to midnight.

In addition to locking the front doors, officials lock the individual front doors to each floor in a lockdown. Normally, these doors are unlocked to permit access without a key between 10:30 a.m. and midnight.

The doors to the fire escape towers are always locked.

According to Rames, the man appeared on campus last week. The University Police Department was contacted and the man was arrested. However, he was not permanently put in jail.

“We thought he would be incarcerated, but he was not,” Rames said.

The individual was informed that if he was seen on the SDSU campus, he would be removed. Since the university had reports that the individual was still in the community, pictures of the man were distributed to the various residence halls and the situation was explained to those who work for residential life as residence assistants, residence hall directors, office assistants and night assistants.

“We went through the week and there was nothing,” Rames said.

However, someone working at the desk at a residence hall believed they spotted the man on campus Monday. UPD was informed and the campus was locked down.

The dorms were to be opened again Tuesday morning, Rames said.

Rames believes the man should not be a problem for SDSU students. She says that UPD is keeping an eye out for the man.

She says if a student feels threatened or endangered in anyway, they should contact UPD or their residence assistant.

“Our goal is to make this a positive environment for students. … If there was someone at my front door that I didn’t know, I wouldn’t let them in,” Rames said.