An unidentified Resident Assistant received two death threats after breaking up a dorm room party Tuesday night in Centennial Hall, according to Jeff Hanley, president of the Residence Hall Association.
The ordeal began before 11 p.m. when a person tried to bring a keg into Anderson Hall hidden in a duffel bag, Hanley said. The desk receptionist at the time noticed the strange shape of the bag and a Resident Director at the desk inspected the bag and found the keg.
A search then began on South side for the destination of the keg, and the RA on-duty found the party in a room in Centennial Hall.
Michaela McGill, a sophomore in the School of Communication, said she was sitting in the hall with friends when she saw a group of people walking to a room at the end of the hall.
"[It was] a big group of girls looking like they were ready to go out dancing," she said.
Joe Burge, a sophomore in the College of Arts of Sciences, said he kept his door open after he saw a "lot of people walking by dressed in semi-party attire."
"I thought they were all going to pre-game and then go dancing or out to a club," McGill said. Pre-gaming refers to drinking before going to an off-campus party or social event.
The unidentified RA then requested the assistance of two other RAs to help break up the party, Hanley said.
After the RAs entered the room, some of the guests immediately fled the scene, Hanley said. Accounts vary about how many students were in the suite. Students are quoted as saying there were as few as 15 and as many as 30.
Burge said he saw people trying to get away down the back stairwell while the RA was saying, "Don't try to escape - we've caught you."
While the RAs took the names of the guests, a fire alarm was pulled and the rest of the guests left, Burge said.
After returning to the dorms after the fire drill, Hanley said he visited the scene of the incident and saw numerous bottles of hard alcohol and quarter sheets advertising events at local clubs being removed from the room.
Burge said he watched a keg roll by after coming back from the fire alarm. McGill said she saw a garbage can filled with alcohol bottles.
"At that point, the situation normalized for the most part," Hanley said.
Some students said they didn't think the party would be broken up.
"I didn't think they would get busted because Centennial is a lower key place and because it's at the end of the hall ... but they were really loud," McGill said.
Burge said he was not surprised the party was busted.
"I'm surprised that someone would be so foolish as to try to bring a keg into the dorm and think they were going to get away with it," Burge said.
When the RA who led the bust returned home, the RA saw a threatening note on the whiteboard on the door, Hanley said. Public Safety responded to the scene and took photos of the note, according to an anonymous source close to the investigation.
Around 3:25 a.m., the RA was awakened by noises at the door, Hanley said. When the RA opened the door, there was a knife stuck into the door with a note threatening the RA's life, he said.
"It was the knife that really caught everyone's attention," Hanley said.
The Metropolitan Police Department is involved in the investigation, Hanley said. RHA, Student Government and Housing and Dining Programs have combined efforts to offer a $1,000 reward to anyone who provides information leading to an arrest of the person or group responsible for the knife threat, he said.
Whoever is responsible for the threat could face criminal charges and up to a year-and-a-half in jail, Hanley said. The guilty party would also go before a conduct council hearing chaired by three students, one faculty member and one staff member, he said. The individual could receive as high a sentence as expulsion.
"I would definitely vote for expulsion, and I think you would be very hard-pressed to find a board member that wouldn't vote for expulsion," Hanley said.
Hanley said the RHA is forming a new Residential Affairs Committee that will work with Public Safety, Judicial Affairs and Mediation Services, all RAs and RDs and the SG. The committee will be a body students can approach if there is a problem among residents.
The purpose of the committee is to work with the community to uphold high standards for residence hall life, Hanley said.
"We value the right to go to bed without fearing for your life," he said.
