Should San Francisco State University become a closed campus? 

Nonstudent conduct is affecting safety on campus

Courtesy of San Francisco State University

There has been nonstudent conduct happening on campus. One example has been a homeless guy on campus who is creating a hostile environment for students. Apart from the library, there have been incidents reported even in the fine arts building as well. 

“There was a recent police report generated for an un-housed non-student that was contacted,” University Police Department Lt. Jim Callaghan said. “As a result of this last contact, the male subject was trespassed from the San Francisco State University property.”

On Nov. 9, 2025, a Biology Concentration in Physiology, Junior, Undergraduate, student, Lexus Castrojon, and her boyfriend had an incident with this guy last night near UPN where he had them flicked off and verbally threatened them. 

“I wasn’t looking at him, but then when I looked up, he was flipping both of us off and I was like, oh, that’s weird. And then he was saying ‘I’m not a scary person, but I will be a scary person if I have to be,’” Castrojon said. “And then he said another. A couple other, like, ineligible things underneath his breath. But we didn’t really engage and we just passed by.”

They had also witnessed an incident with another student weeks ago after he accused that particular student who was on the phone of recording him. 

“Just saying multiple different, like, profanities and saying like, that’s not okay. ‘Like, I know who you are. You don’t know who I am. I can do things,’” said Castrojon. “He likes to restate that he’s capable of doing harm and to not mess with him, per se.”

Castrojon thinks that SFSU should do more to ensure the safety of this campus since she is a STEM student and spends most of her time in the library. 

“How come security doesn’t have the authority to like kick him out?” Castrojon said. “Cuz is that not like it’s not prowling, but like it’s making a hostile environment for people who pay to be here.”

Three days later in the library on Nov. 12, 2025, a male wearing a red hoodie walked into the library and started bothering students trying to preach the name of Jesus Christ and talked about how some students were going to hell.

Declan Gibbons, Civil Engineering student said he saw the guy around the food court area earlier and then he saw the male approach students and talk to them. 

“Talked to the people on the left, came over to me, looked at me, and then asked me what my name was. And I just kind of said, no, thank you. I didn’t really want to talk to him,” Gibbons said. “And he kind of got a little upset about that, said I had, like, a demon inside of me, and then he had to rebuke me.”

Then a Studio Arts student, Naomi Ashford had recorded the guy and saw him standing over a girl menacingly. 

“I’ve noticed a lot of, like, Christians on campus trying to, like, bring people in and convert them,” Ashford said. “And I feel like it has to do with, like, the rise of fascism and, like, the way they need to recruit people to validate themselves.”

Then he approaches the library staff and tells them how he`s trying to preach the name of Jesus Christ. When the library staff members reminded him about the code of conduct, he says “remove your code of conduct” and threatens to get a staff member fired. 

“He said he was gonna get one of them fired. Yeah. I mean, he was clearly being aggressive and not having a good time.,” Zoe Snortum-Phelps, Psychology student, said. “I thought it was odd that the security guard didn’t do more.”

Political Science student, Damien Rashidi has seen this guy on campus all the time but has never seen him come into the library. 

“So it was really just kind of strange and concerning. Like, I was about to go get up and go get security until they got him,” Rashidi said. “I think they’re getting more bold. They’re just coming in now, which is pretty crazy.”

Cinema student Beau Slater had also recorded him and actually tried to interact with this individual and ask him some questions. He has also noticed Christian organizations trying to convert people. 

“On the grass out here, usually there’s a guy. I don’t know, usually there’s a guy here talking about Christianity,” Slater said. “There’s a man tabling towards the front of Cesar Chavez. He talks about Christianity.”

The individual claimed he was a good christian gospel but his behavior had proved otherwise. 

“You shouldn’t be screaming in the library,” Slater said. “I think calling librarians jerks doesn’t look good if you’re trying to speak a Christian gospel.”

These kinds of conduct creates an unsafe environment for students on campus and the university should take further action to protect their students.