Upcoming SGA Resolution Addresses Mullen Library Safety Concerns

By Patrick D. Lewis

A Student Government Association resolution set to be considered next Monday will address student concerns around safety at Mullen Library following multiple disturbing incidents in the building.

Senator Joe Wages (Arts & Sciences) is introducing Resolution 19, which aims to increase “the safety of students and university community members while they are on campus and using university resources.” That would be accomplished by restricting entrance to the building to persons with Washington Regional Library Consortium identification cards, issued by most universities in the Washington area, or with pre-scheduled research appointments made with staff.

Wages told The Tower in an interview that he felt the need to after an October 2025 incident in which a friend texted him saying she was in the library and heard a man having an inappropriate phone conversation. Wages stopped by the library and found the man, who appeared to be “clearly homeless, dirty, his hair hadn’t been washed in weeks… sitting in the back corner of the library on the third floor in the quiet study room.” Wages circled to the rear of the man and saw him watching inappropriate material on his cell phone.

Wages said the man was ultimately escorted out by Department of Public Safety officers and told not to return. He added that library staff told him that they had had run-ins with the man in the past and that he had “been trying to go into the women’s restrooms claiming to be a woman.”

This was not the first time or the only individual who had been found in the library, Wages said. “I had another friend who someone threatened to kill her while she was just printing something off in the library,” he said. None of the people involved in these incidents had “anything to do with the university,” according to Wages.

Those incidents spurred Wages to believe that “it is better to have a more restrictive policy” for entrance to the library, particularly given historically higher crime rates in Brookland.

“Obviously, we’re not blocking students, faculty, anybody associated with the university from coming in,” he said. “And we don’t even want to block people who are genuinely trying to access our books because we have a lot of great books, rare books… we really just want to block those bad actors who aren’t utilizing our resources from getting in.”

Wages met with Associate Vice President for Public Safety and Emergency Management Kirk McLean, who serves as Chief of Campus Police. McLean doubled officer patrols in the library from once per hour to twice per hour and now ensures his staff is constantly monitoring the security cameras in the library for any suspicious activity. He also met the university library staff, who seemed “a little bit more hesitant to adopt” the policy but who were open to suggestions, Wages said.

“I’m confident that the Senate will pass this,” said Wages. “I just really hope that the [university] administration will listen to its students, will agree with my view, and implement, if not this exact policy, then something at least something similar  to prevent anything like this incident happening in the future.”

The measure will be brought to the floor next Monday.