The Web site cruisingforsex.com is once again listing GW bathrooms as hot spots for sexual activity, a year after University Police barred men from campus for incidents of lewd conduct.

For three years, UPD has nabbed numerous individuals for sexual activity in men’s bathrooms on campus.

UPD reports a decrease in these “lewd acts” since May, when cruisingforsex.com stopped listing University facilities as meeting points for sex.

UPD barred 12 men from campus in October 2001 for seven incidents of lewd acts. A professor reported men performing oral sex in a Bell Hall bathroom Sept. 21, 2001.

Recent postings dated this September and October suggest that sexual activity has resumed.

Several “cruisy” bathrooms are identified on the Web site, including those on the lower level of the Marvin Center and on the fifth floor of the Gelman Library. Individuals can post messages on the Web site about their experiences in these bathrooms.

UPD Chief Dolores Stafford said plain-clothes policemen continue to run undercover operations several times a month in places where incidents have previously occurred. Areas targeted for the undercover stings include the Marvin Center and Bell and Corcoran halls.

Some of the subjects caught in the past were GW students, Stafford said.

“Until we’re sure that this behavior and activity ceases, undercover operations will continue to take place,” Stafford said. “We know which bathrooms have been popular in the past, and those are the ones we will be watching.”

An individual posted a message on cruisinforsex.com dated October 2002 that he has met “several hot college guys” in the lower level Marvin Center bathroom. “If you are (or look like) a student, you won’t have a problem, as long as you don’t run in and out of the bathroom constantly,” the person advised in the post.

University Police first uncovered sexual activity in GW bathrooms in November 1999. In some instances, more than 10 people were identified at a time, according to Stafford. In cases where the individuals involved are not GW students, they are barred from campus. GW students engaged in these behaviors will be identified and turned over to Student Judicial Services.

Lewd acts are not listed under the Code of Student Conduct.
Other universities have encountered similar behavior in their bathrooms. Chief Anthony Diorio of the Boston University Police Department reports detaining several men in the past few months for having sex in bathrooms.

“This kind of behavior has been going on for a while,” said Diorio. “We receive complaints from students all the time.”

Other universities have found a different way to tackle this problem. At the University of California at Los Angeles, officials seek to educate students that this behavior is unacceptable on campus.

“We’re not trying to arrest people,” said Director of Police Community Services Nancy Greenstein. “We try to create an atmosphere where people are aware of the fact that they shouldn’t be having sex in bathrooms.”

“This has been an ever-present problem throughout my career at UCLA,” added Greenstein.

Greenstein also noted that UCLA Police use uniformed officers instead of undercover officers to patrol bathrooms.

GW students expressed a range of reactions to sex in campus bathrooms.

” If people were having sex in a bathroom, it’d be kind of funny,” sophomore Sophia Chan said. “It’s alright as long as they’re not disturbing other people.”

Other students were disgusted at the thought of sex in GW’s bathrooms.
” If two people were having sex in the bathroom, I’d call the police because it’s disturbing,” junior Derrick Strickland said.