Amid safety concerns — including break-ins at three Row houses — students currently living on campus are being relocated for the remainder of the school year, Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole wrote in an email to the Stanford community on April 7.  

In her email, Brubaker-Cole notified the Stanford community that the Department of Public Safety had reported burglaries at two student residences: 680 Lomita Drive on March 29 and 610 Mayfield Avenue — La Maison Francaise, more commonly known as French House — on March 31. 

“At both locations, entry was through unlocked windows,” Brubaker-Cole wrote. “Seven rooms were impacted, and the students who had been living in those rooms have been notified.” 

On Monday, a third break-in occurred at 1047 Campus Drive. According to a 1047 staff member, suspects entered the building through a window in the back parking lot and entered a two-room double. A resident of the room was unable to tell if items had been taken based on the pictures he was shown.

The Department of Public Safety is operating increased security patrols “around the clock,” Brubaker-Cole wrote. She also provided community members with guidelines to increase safety provisions on their own, including keeping windows and doors locked, arranging to pick-up packages at the package center and reporting suspicious activity to the police. Brubaker-Cole encouraged individuals living on campus to disallow “piggybacking,” which occurs when individuals without key card access to a building enter by following someone with access.

In addition to vulnerability to crime, the small number of undergraduates living on campus this spring is raising “some key concerns about the safety and well-being of residents,” including a “worrisome level of seclusion.” COVID-19 concerns are also driving the relocation order, she wrote, citing the potential need to accommodate medical personnel, first responders and individuals required to self-isolate.  

According to Brubaker-Cole’s email, the University ordered 191 relocation assignments, and 161 were completed; the remaining 30 students decided to leave campus. There are approximately 600 undergraduates remaining on campus, after 1,000 were originally approved of the 3,000 who applied to stay.

The majority of the relocations originated in Row houses and East Campus, according to Brubaker-Cole, as East Campus all-frosh dorms and Row houses had particularly low numbers of residents living on campus. 

Contact Sarina Deb at sdeb7 ‘at’ stanford.edu