Akron...What a School!
2 more felons in dorms
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
Two more University of Akron students have stepped forward to say they were assigned to live in university housing with convicted felons.
That makes four students in three years who unknowingly were paired with roommates with criminal histories.
One of the students, Will Voelkerding of Medina, said he came to UA this fall knowing that there had been controversy on campus and even joked about it.
``I said at my (high school) graduation I'd probably get paired with a felon, and that's exactly what happened,'' said Voelkerding, an 18-year-old freshman. ``I couldn't believe it.''
In prepared remarks, UA spokesman Ken Torisky said student safety was a top priority for the university, and that it would be ``enhancing'' its residence hall policies in coming weeks, possibly at the next UA trustees meeting Dec. 13.
That could mean stiffening its policy to resemble those of other state universities such as Ohio State, Kent State and Miami University.
They ask housing applicants if they have a criminal history and offer housing based on the nature of their crime. Ex-cons with nonviolent crimes still may be allowed housing.
Now, UA doesn't discriminate against people with criminal pasts, UA spokespeople have said repeatedly.
Residence halls are open to all, with grants available to financially disadvantaged students to cover the $8,000-a-year cost of living and eating there.
In the most recent incident at UA, a 23-year-old offender told Voelkerding within minutes of meeting him that he'd just gotten out of the Lorain Correctional Institution, where he served three years for aggravated robbery and burglary.
Their room in Spanton Hall looked just like his cell, he told Voelkerding.
When Voelkerding told his mother, she left work to rush to UA to remove her son.
``I was livid,'' Marianne Kirchenbauer said. ``What do you do? How can they justify charging what they do and then putting him in with an ex-con?''
Voelkerding talked her out of moving him out.
``He felt he was mature enough to handle it,'' his mother said. ``I had to let go and trust his judgment.''
Over the next three months, the roommate kept pets (eight mice and two ferrets) and read a satanic bible, Voelkerding said. The two didn't socialize outside of the dorm; Voelkerding went home three or four times a week.
While Voelkerding chose to ride the semester out, Kirchenbauer complained four times to UA housing officials, she said. Each time she was told, ``This is the diversity we offer our students.''
Torisky said UA only will consider complaints that are filed by the student.
The arrangement came to an abrupt end last month when the ex-con moved out. UA confirms he is no longer a student.
Voelkerding will be moving home for the next semester in January.
In the second case, Kyle Duitch was a freshman from Canton when he was assigned in 2004 to live in Bulger Hall with a 41-year-old ex-convict who had served five months for drug trafficking in 2002 and nine months for burglary in 2004, according to public records.
Duitch learned of his roommate's background within a few weeks and was leery, he said.
The roommate left for days at a time and once threatened him, recalled Duitch, now 23 and a senior majoring in information systems management.
That prompted Duitch to go to the on-site student supervisor -- the residence adviser -- in his dorm and then to the RA's supervisor. He wanted UA to move his roommate, not him, because the two shared an apartment-like setup of two bedrooms with a living room that Duitch didn't want to leave.
University officials said they ``couldn't discriminate against felons,'' Duitch recalled.
His roommate abruptly left mid-semester, taking his keys with him. Since he didn't officially drop out, UA wouldn't change the locks on the door in case he would be back, Duitch reported. He never saw him again.
``By then I was fed up with the whole dorm life thing,'' Duitch said. Midway through the following semester, he moved to a private apartment.
Torisky, the UA spokesman, confirmed that UA knew of Duitch's complaints and was investigating them when the roommate left, ending the matter.
The Akron Beacon Journal attempted to reach the ex-convicts through searches of public records and by contacting the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, but was unsuccessful.
Last month, the university kicked an ex-convict out of Bulger Hall when he was accused of new crimes. The defendant is 45 and his former roommate, a freshman from Homeworth, Ohio, is 19. The student asked that his name not be used.
In 2004, the university also assigned a 36-year-old drug informant to a room in Wallaby Hall with a 23-year-old law student from Virginia.
Last month, the university awarded Jerry ``Jay'' Williams $8,000 to settle his grievance on that housing arrangement.
The informant's testimony about marijuana sales led a UA judicial panel to kick another student, Charles Plinton, out of school and to revoke his housing contract, even though Plinton was found innocent of the crime by a common pleas jury. Plinton killed himself last December.
Two lawsuits are pending against the university in regard to the Plinton case case.
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