One of the flyers in the Danforth University Center (Elizabeth Stump | Senior Staff Writer)

On Wednesday, Oct. 21, an unidentified individual posted fliers throughout the Ann W. Olin Women’s Building and Danforth University Center. The fliers read, “I’m Sig, 45. I own a couple of businesses. I’m looking to meet an adult woman (18+) for a dating arrangement. … I provide financial support and pay for all outings.”

This is not the first time that non-WashU individuals have targeted young women on the WashU campus. Last November, a man was charged on 14 felony counts after filming women in the John M. Olin Library bathrooms.

Angela Coonce, chief of the WashU Police Department (WUPD), stated that the police department is currently investigating the matter and advised students not to contact the individual. Additionally, she encouraged students to notify WUPD if they found any similar fliers.

“For safety reasons, we also advise community members not to contact this individual or anyone they do not know who is offering similar arrangements,” Coonce wrote in an email to Student Life. “The safety and security of our campus community is always our top priority.”

Senior Natalie Dingman, the president of the Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity (APO), explained that she found a flyer posted on bulletin boards outside of the APO suite located on the third floor of the Women’s Building as well as multiple on the second floor. When she entered the suite at 4 p.m., the flyer wasn’t posted; two hours later, an APO member noticed the flyer on their billboard. She expressed that it made her and many of the other members uncomfortable.

“There was a feeling of it being not only inappropriate, but it also just made us feel uncomfortable that somebody was … basically enlisting a sugar baby on our campus,” Dingman said.

Following the discovery, she made sure to take down the other fliers posted throughout the building. That same evening, she informed APO’s faculty advisor, Adam Brok, coordinator for service and immersive experiences, about the fliers. He told her that he would follow up on the incident through the proper channels. When she followed up with him two weeks later, he was unable to share any further updates.

Dingman said that this event lost her trust that the campus is a protected place. She was upset that it seemed there were no active precautions or measures that could be taken to protect the community.

“That trust felt violated in the sense of like somebody who was obviously not a part of the campus community was able to come onto campus, come into our building that was specifically for social and club activities, and post what I would consider to be a predatory listing,” Dingman said.  “You would like to think that when these things happen, the campus has systems in place to kind of reinstate that trust.”

Although WUPD has access to building entrance information through card swipe data and campus cameras, she thought it may be harder to track down the individual during the day when the campus is busier and swipe access is not needed to enter university buildings. 

She does not see these events as being WashU-specific, though, but rather a broader trend of the ways in which young women are often targeted. She highlighted that the individual’s choice to place the posters on a college campus rather than another public location was yet another example of younger women being targeted.

“So I don’t think it’s necessarily anything specific about WashU or WashU’s campus, or about our security or lack thereof?” Dingman said. “I think it’s more of just a fact, an unfortunate fact of being a young woman in this world.”

Moving forward, Dingman expressed hope that the individual would be found and that the University could find ways to assure students of their commitment to creating a safe campus community.

“Some sort of reassurance to the student body that … we should be able to walk around our campus and not feel like we’re going to get preyed on by creepy old men,” Dingman said. “I think that’s a pretty basic ask.”

Both Brok and Zachary Littrell, the assistant director for sorority and fraternity life, were reached out to for comment as advisors of many of the groups within the Women’s Building. Neither responded.