Harassing phone calls in the residence halls are a persistent problem for students. These calls can be anything from a threatening phone call to a caller who repeatedly hangs up.

Loras Jaeger, director of the Department of Public Safety, said DPS often deals with harassing phone calls in the dorms.

Jaeger said the way DPS handles each case varies according to the nature of the case.

“What we do really depends on the case,” he said. “If they know the caller, if they want to pursue the case criminally, if the call is threatening in nature — it all just depends.”

Jaeger said cases pursued criminally still have many variations. The statute reads differently depending on whether the call was threatening or just harassing.

“Harassment is a simple misdemeanor,” Jaeger said, “but if the caller threatened to kill the person, obviously the charge would be more serious.”

Kristen Alley, Linden Hall director, said hall directors and the Department of Residence take cases where someone’s life is in danger seriously.

“If it’s a threatening call, we won’t deal with it through our regular judicial process,” Alley said. “And if it’s a case where someone’s life is in danger, we’re going to send that to the Dean of Students.”

Alley said going to a higher authority on more serious cases is essential because the caller gets the incident put on his or her permanent record. If the situation is handled within the residence association’s judicial boards, nothing appears on the permanent record.

As far as non-threatening harassment, Alley said hall directors are most concerned about the students who receive the calls.

“What we would do is make sure that student gets connected with DPS,” she said. “We ask the resident to write the incident report even if they don’t know the caller so we have a record of it somewhere. After that, we will deal with it through the judicial process.”

Alley said making sure the victim still feels comfortable in his or her residence hall also is important.

“Depending on the severity we will follow up and make sure the resident is feeling safe, secure and protected,” she said.

Jaeger said DPS also works with the Department of Residence to possibly relocate the victim if he or she is in danger.

Harassing phone calls and harassment in general probably will become a bigger problem in the future, Jaeger said.

“It’s becoming increasingly common to try to hide behind a telephone and the Internet,” he said. “It’s going to get much more difficult to catch the people.”

Alley agreed with Jaeger, even though she said she has not seen it in Linden Hall.

“I could possibly see this increasing, especially because of the Internet,” she said. “We’re seeing a virtual community develop where people don’t really deal with people. We’re starting to feel uncomfortable confronting people face to face.”