Department of Public Safety and Eugene Police officers responded to a report of a transient man masturbating and viewing pornography on an open-access computer at the Knight Library around 9:30 p.m. on March 22, Eugene police said.
Ryan Carl Mesaros, 25, was arrested on previous warrants and was charged with public indecency and cited for possessing less than an ounce of marijuana, Eugene police spokeswoman Kerry Delf said.
A student assistant working at the Current Periodicals desk reported that a man using a public computer on the third floor was viewing pornography and masturbating, said Mark Watson, associate university librarian for Collections & Access. Library staff then called DPS.
Delf said DPS officers saw the man “actively masturbating,” and the Eugene Police Department was called to assist DPS officers.
Watson said similar incidents happen two or three times each year.
“These are the ones that we know about, that people come tell us and we respond to,” Watson said. “My guess is that you can figure if we have two or three of these a year that we handle in a formal way, there are probably some more that happen that we don’t ever hear about.”
Andrew Bonamici, associate University librarian for Instructional Services, said the library isn’t considering filtering Internet access and said he isn’t aware of any public academic research library that would do so.
“We don’t put filters on the computers or say you can’t look at pornography or other kinds of sexual materials or erotic materials because in some cases those may be objects of study,” Bonamici said.
Library officials started a safety monitor program last fall and trained student staff, mainly to prevent theft, Watson said. When library patrons leave their belongings unattended, for example, safety monitors will either leave a note or tell the owner to keep a closer eye on their possessions.
“We really weren’t trying to have students act like security personnel,” Watson said. “We just want them to be a visible presence in the building.” He added that safety monitors won’t apprehend anyone and are instructed to contact DPS.
The library is open 24 hours a day during finals and dead week, and a security firm is hired to monitor the building and check for student identification at the entrance from midnight to 8 a.m.
Bonamici said that students who see suspicious activity in the library should contact staff immediately.
“Because Knight Library is a very large facility, we need help from everyone using it to help monitor the environment,” he said.
Department of Public Safety officials could not be reached for comment.
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