Campus Alert Archive
Penn State

The HUB Restroom Stalking: A VAWA Timely Warning at Penn State's Most Trafficked Building

PAstalkingtimely warninghigh confidence
Confirmed Threat

On February 16, 2023, Penn State University Police received a report of stalking at the Hetzel Union Building (HUB) on the University Park campus, where a student reported an unknown person appeared to have video recorded them inside a restroom. When the victim returned to the same restroom, the same behavior occurred; the victim confronted the suspect and was struck in the face before the suspect fled. The case (23UP00619) is published in Penn State's centralized timely-warning archive.

Alerts
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Response
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Killed
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Institution
Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Public R1 · PA
~50,028 studentsRave Mobile SafetyPSUAlert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTEmail
Verified verbatimPenn State Timely Warnings (timelywarnings.psu.edu) — University Park campus, case 23UP006191141 chars
Stalking - VAWA has occurred at University Park Case Number: 23UP00619 University Police received a report of stalking at the Hetzel Union Building (HUB). A student victim reported that an unknown person appeared to have video recorded them inside the restroom. After time passed, the victim returned to the same restroom and the same behavior occurred. The victim confronted the suspect and was struck in the face, before the suspect fled the area. Police are investigating. It can be assumed that conditions continue to exist that may pose a threat to members and guests of the University community. This warning is being issued in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA). This warning addresses a report of sexual misconduct. Resources are available on and off campus to provide assistance: https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/get-urgent-help. Members of the campus community are urged to use caution. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Penn State University Police at (814) 863-1111.
Penn State University Park is the flagship campus with ~50,000 students; the HUB is the busiest non-academic building on campus
The incident escalates from covert recording (a stalking course-of-conduct) into physical assault — illustrating why stalking warnings flag a continuing threat
The case is dual-classified by Penn State as 'Stalking - VAWA' but the warning text also references sexual misconduct resources, reflecting overlap between stalking and sex-offense reporting
Penn State's standardized continuing-threat language ('It can be assumed that conditions continue to exist') is the bright-line trigger for VAWA warnings system-wide
The HUB-Robeson Center is a flagship Clery-geography location — incidents there reliably produce timely warnings
Restroom-based covert-recording stalking is a specific pattern increasingly reported on campuses; SPARC has flagged it as a rising stalking modality
Context

Background

Penn State University Park is one of the largest universities in the United States, and its Hetzel Union Building (HUB-Robeson Center) is the campus's primary student-life hub, housing dining, programming, and student organizations. The stalking-VAWA timely warning (case 23UP00619), archived at timelywarnings.psu.edu, was issued February 16, 2023, and reflects the legal architecture of VAWA timely warnings: stalking is constituted by a course of conduct — here, repeated covert recording in the same restroom — that escalated into physical assault. State College resident Mark Alonzo Williams was subsequently arrested and charged with invasion of privacy, simple assault, and harassment. DATA NOTE: this record's filename, id, and slug carry an erroneous 2023-08-21 date; reporting confirms the underlying incident occurred on February 16, 2023, and the maintainer should rename the file to match. Penn State maintains one of the most transparent timely-warning archives in U.S. higher education, with case numbers, campus-specific URLs, and standardized statutory language across all 24 campuses, as documented by Daily Collegian reporting. The specific warning illustrates a contemporary stalking pattern (restroom covert-recording) that violence-prevention organizations like SPARC have flagged as increasingly common.
Analysis

Key Findings

Stalking course-of-conduct escalated from covert recording into physical assault — a textbook example of why VAWA warnings flag continuing threats
The HUB at Penn State is the campus's most trafficked non-academic building; incidents there reliably trigger timely warnings
Penn State uses dual-statutory framing (Clery + VAWA) and links to sexual misconduct resources even for stalking-classified warnings
Restroom covert-recording is a documented contemporary stalking pattern flagged by SPARC and other campus-violence researchers
The 23UP00619 case number reflects Penn State's per-campus University Park case-numbering for 2023; the high number despite the February incident date shows the case sequence is not a simple chronological count of timely warnings
Outcome
The suspect initially fled the scene. State College resident Mark Alonzo Williams was later charged with invasion of privacy, simple assault, and harassment for video recording an individual in a HUB-Robeson Center restroom. The case combines stalking-VAWA with assault, illustrating how stalking course-of-conduct can escalate.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
    Penn State University Park Timely Warning — Stalking VAWA (case 23UP00619)
    timelywarnings.psu.edu
  2. Official
    Penn State Timely Warnings centralized archive
    timelywarnings.psu.edu
  3. Student Paper
    Man Arrested For Allegedly Video Recording Penn State Student In HUB Bathroom — Onward State
    onwardstate.com
  4. Student Paper
    What to know about timely warnings — Daily Collegian
    psucollegian.com
  5. Clery ASR
    Penn State University Park 2024 Annual Security Report
    police.psu.edu
Tags
stalkingvawatimely-warningcovert-recordingpublic-r1penn-stateflagship-campuscentralized-archivehubcourse-of-conduct
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion