Dormitory Dangers at SRSU
Original illustration from Max Barraza, Skyline Cartoonist
By: Maya Tinajero, Skyline Editor
ALPINE – On what would have been a routine day late in the fall semester of 2025, a Sul Ross student along with his father, a professor at the university, duct taped a cracked window on the first floor of Fletcher Hall. Landon Velasco, a Fletcher Hall resident and his father, Joseph Velasco, acted because the window was no longer able to be locked, allowing anyone to enter the building. The duct tape remains there to this day, covering a relatively large crack in one of the glass panes facing the front of the building. No repairs have been made or mentioned.
In addition to tardy repairs, there have been security violations involving unauthorized people entering the dorms. When asked about the maintenance and security issues with student housing, ResLife seemed to place the blame on students for timely reporting. ResLife said repairs “are typically completed within a week.” The duct taped window on the first floor of Fletcher has been broken for several months.
“We continue to emphasize guest policies and resident responsibility to help ensure the safety and security of our on-campus housing communities,” ResLife told the Skyline.
From top left to bottom right, duct taped window in Fletcher Hall, staircase damage, out of order elevator and washing machines in Lobo Village 2
Fletcher Hall is one of the university’s more recent renovations and the building itself was open for occupancy at the beginning of fall semester 2025. The dorm remains the cheapest option for students who are looking for on-campus housing. Despite this, the recent news that meal and housing fees would increase by 3% beginning Fall 2026 and ongoing failures in dorm maintenance and security have many students asking if this rate increase will lead to better upkeep of the dorms and safer conditions.
According to Landon Velasco, there are many issues with Fletcher Hall, including two occurrences of individuals not affiliated with the university entering the dorms.
“I even confronted one of them, because I was walking up to my door and looked to the right and see this probably 30 to 40 year-old man, just walking around and looking at what seemed to be the names on the doors.” he said. When Velasco asked the man what he was doing, the stranger responded, “Just looking around.” Velasco told the Skyline he asked the man to leave and then entered his dorm, but did not alert the resident assistant, which he said he regrets.
Along with trespassers, Velasco and other students mentioned such issues in maintenance as a broken water heater after students returned from spring break as well as no cooling from the HVAC system. Both issues lasted more than a week, according to Velasco.
“I’m not going to say that the ResLife department as a whole is incompetent, I think there (are) a few people who have created an atmosphere for students living in Fletcher that give(s) the students the impression that no matter what they say or do, it’s not going to be enough to have things be addressed, let alone acted upon,” Velasco said.
If he were a parent with children considering attending Sul Ross, Landon Velasco said the current situation with maintenance and security would make him question whether to allow it.
“If most parents knew the reality of how Fletcher usually is or has been, a lot of students would not be there,” he said.
Fletcher Hall isn’t the only dormitory lacking maintenance and security. In February of this year a man was detained after unlawful entry of a Sul Ross dorm in Lobo Village 2. Both campus police and the local police department responded to the incident. University officials indicated to the Skyline that the intruder had entered through a door that had been propped open but offered no other clarification.
Sul Ross Police Chief Ricky George and his officers declined to answer questions from the Skyline or any other media unless they are first submitted through email.
In a written response to the Skyline, campus police said, “We value our strong partnerships with local agencies, including the Alpine Police Department; these collaborations ensure a rapid, robust response to any significant incident, as seen on February 26. While violent incidents on campus remain rare, any single occurrence is taken with the utmost seriousness.”
Lobo Village 1 has also been the site of crime this semester. On April 7 a lobo-SRSU alert was sent out notifying students of “sex assault/ burglary” in which the suspects were already in custody. The alert also told students to “watch for door ‘carding’ & lock doors.”
Campus police declined to provide any details about the incident.