Over the last week, students at Rowan University have been notified with “Rowan Alert” alerts concerning a recent incident that took place on campus at Holly Pointe and Magnolia Hall. 

The first alert was sent on Saturday, April 23 at 8:31 p.m. which read, “On Saturday, April 23, 2022, at approximately 6:00 p.m., a student reported being struck on the head by an unknown male by the Holly Pointe A-Pod 1st floor elevator.”

The latter half of the email read, “Suspect is described as a ‘collage’ age muscular built white male. He wears a white pin ‘stripped’ button-down collar T-shirt, black jeans, red shoes, and a tattoo on his right forearm. If anyone has further information on this incident or person, please contact the Rowan University Police Department at 856-256-4911 or call 911.”

The student nor the felon was identified in the first initial email sent. 

The email warned on-campus and off-campus students to be aware of the suspect and to report any changes to the Rowan University Police Department.

The concluding section of the email listed basic safety tips for students to be aware of such as: “Code Blue Phone on campus will give you direct access to Rowan Public Safety, report suspicious activity immediately to Public Safety, always safer to walk with friends when possible, be alert to your surroundings and the nearest exits and emergency phones, and trust your instincts, if you don’t feel comfortable in a place or situation, leave.”

Later that same day at 9:29 p.m., all students received yet another email that read, “Update for the Holly Pointe Assault incident. A suspect has been identified. Thank you for your assistance.”

Once again, the victim nor the suspect was identified in the email. 

The Rowan Alert failed to mention if there was a weapon involved or not. 

Despite a suspect being identified, students were still left shaken and/or curious about the incident. 

Christina Quinn, a first-year English and mathematics major at Rowan University, lives on campus.

“I was surprised to hear about it because I generally think of Rowan as a quiet campus, but I’m confident that it’s an isolated incident. Although, I haven’t given it much thought because not a lot of the information was publicized,” Quinn said.

Allison Passalacqua, a first-year English and education student at Rowan University, lives on campus at Holly Pointe in the A-Pod. 

“The elevator incident was really scary for me and my friends because we actually live right next to the elevator that it happened in. Even if it wasn’t from the same guy, we all realized that there was really nothing to stop us from being attacked by complete strangers. The best thing we could do was make sure people knew where we were and always stay alert no matter where we went. It’s safe to say that we all stayed in our rooms that night,” Passalacqua said. 

On Monday, April 25, at 4:34 p.m., another “Rowan Alert” was sent out. 

“At 3:56 pm today, Monday, April 25, Rowan’s Department of Public Safety received a call from a student about another student who reportedly had a weapon in Magnolia Hall. Rowan and Glassboro Police were dispatched and the male student was apprehended outside the residence hall. There was no known danger to the community.”

There is no current knowledge of the type of weapon that the student had. 

In April of 2022, there were 61 reported dispositions that took place where Rowan Police were involved. 

The crime reports include the case number, date/time reported, date/time occurred, the nature of the crime, general location, and disposition.  

For more information about crime at Rowan University, students can visit the Rowan website. All reported crime logs are free to the public. 

Students who are worried about safety and/or crime prevention should visit the Rowan website. Rowan University has dedicated a whole detailed section to crime prevention. 

For more information about safety and crime prevention call or email Lieutenant Frank Davey at 856-256-4996 or daveyf@rowan.edu. 

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