gregh  2007-02-05 01:23  Law_School  usf   

I'm sitting here in the student lounge at school much too late on a worknight, slogging through the huge assignment for Legal Ethics that I put off to watch the Super Bowl. Around 30 minutes ago, one of the campus security folks showed up, and he came in and looked at the woman asleep on the couch and started making calls...

I guess on Saturday, the weekend before last, when a bunch of 1Ls seemed to be here late, this woman first appeared. She walked into the lounge, kept thumbing through a magazine, and then eventually laid down and slept. I thought it was odd, but there were others here when she was first here, and no one said anything. Being an introvert myself, I let it lie. What led me to believe it was odd? Well, for one thing, she didn't have casebooks or a laptop with her.

The next day, she was here again. Looked like the same clothes, the same magazine, etc., and again, no laptop or casebooks. As I left, I thought about calling security, but I didn't. If I was wrong, I'd roust this person for no reason. And again, others were and had been around while she'd been here, and no one seemed concerned. I didn't do anything, though I had again considered calling security on the way out.

I didn't see her last weekend, so I figured whatever had been going on had passed. And then, as I mentioned to Emily vi IM, I saw her in the school around 5 PM one day last week. As such, I assumed all was well, and that I nearly called security to come hassle a fellow student.

Well, there's that whole thing about what we do when we assume...

Apparently, she's been warned repeatedly to stay out of the law school building, and, at least according to folks who were here, she's supposed to be arrested for trespassing if seen on university property. They decided to notify her of this, and she asked if they knew of any place she could stay. The dispatcher called SFPD, who referred them to someplace beyond the distance the USF security forces are allowed to travel, apparently. Then, they let her use the restroom and sent her on her way.

I thought it was all pretty brazen on her part. There are many less visible places to hold out around the building; I don't think I would have picked the fishbowl that is the student lounge. Maybe she thought no one would recognize her. Plus, it's near the food. When I came in, she was eating what looked to be a burrito and drinking a Coke, having just returned from the refrigerator. I have a suspicion someone will be missing a lunch. (Having volunteered to clean out the old fridge once last semester, the odds of anyone actually returning to pick up food is low; now, the fridge is even bigger and there's no sign saying anything about a cleaning schedule.)

Now I'll need to figure out how I'll proceed if I see her again.