Pforzheimer House To Install Locks on Bathrooms Following Repeated Indecent Exposure Incidents

Updated February 24, 2025, at 12:10 p.m.

Keypad locks will be installed on the communal bathrooms on two floors of Pforzheimer House’s Comstock Hall after students repeatedly encountered a man allegedly entering the building half naked, according to a Thursday email from Pforzheimer House administrators.

In an email to students in Comstock on Thursday, resident dean Monique A. Roy wrote that the new keypads will be installed “in response to requests from entryways.”

Roy added that the keypad locks will be installed on the second and third floor bathrooms as a “pilot measure,” with the possibility of expanding to other entryways in Pforzheimer House.

The installation on the third floor bathrooms will begin Friday at 10 a.m. and is expected to last “2-3 hours,” according to the email.

“After the locks are installed, your entryway resident tutor will provide each of you with the code for the bathroom you would be designated to use,” Roy wrote.

College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo wrote in a statement that the College is “confident that the security mechanisms in place at Pforzheimer remain in appropriate working order.”

“We have no reason to believe there is a security concern,” he wrote.

Earlier this month, the Harvard University Police Department and Pforzheimer House administrators responded to student reports of a man exposing himself in the student dormitory. The man reportedly walked through the halls of the dorm unclothed on multiple occasions.

While Roy sent an email to all house residents about the early February incident on Feb. 6, administrators have been attempting to secure Comstock Hall for more than a month.

Students had witnessed the man entering bathrooms and wandering between floors multiple times since last December. The bathrooms on the second and third floors of Comstock Hall are shared by all residents of the floor, and previously, the bathroom doors did not lock at all.

“It the longstanding policy of the Harvard University Police Department not to comment on staffing, equipment, operations, and security measures,” HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano wrote in a statement.

Clarification: February 24, 2025

This article has been updated to clarify that there are not currently plans to install keypad locks on communal bathrooms in Pforzheimer House outside Comstock Hall.

Correction: February 24, 2025

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Monique A. Roy’s email was sent to Pforzheimer House. In fact, it was sent to students on some floors of Comstock, not to the entire House.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart or on Threads @laurel.shugart.