MARA KILGORE — Four Denison first-years are under investigation after chasing a woman through the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during a scavenger hunt on the morning of April 9.
Reports from the Pitt News, the University of Pittsburgh daily student newspaper, and The Pittsburgh Gazette claim that early Tuesday morning the four students got out of their car and harassed a woman to complete a task to ‘scare someone’ as a part of a scavenger hunt.
Pittsburgh police identified the students as Richard Calder Buonocore ’22, Matthew Redmond ’22, Otto Laakonen ’22 and Jack Armstrong ’22.
According to both news sources, the scavenger hunt seems to be a task to earn membership into an underground organization not formally recognized by Denison.
The local police stated that the other tasks included visiting local sports venues, taking selfies at bridges, and publicly insulting prominent Pittsburgh sports figures.
All four have been placed on “unwelcome person” status from all University of Pittsburgh property.
Denison has been working alongside the Pittsburgh police to decide on further action and are now subject to Denison’s code of conduct process.
“We are horrified by what happened on the University of Pittsburgh campus,” said Laurel Kennedy, Vice President of Student Development at Denison. “Such behavior is not in line with Denison’s values or expectations. What was reported in the press is deeply embarrassing to the college. We will handle this as a serious conduct matter.”
More information regarding the issue will be reported after further investigation.