By: Jaclyn Johnson

University Housing staff member Avery Laray Scott has been fired for violating university policies after being arrested in relation to the reported rape of a Humphreys Hall resident, said Steve Voorhies, manager of news and media relations.

Scott was fired for violating Housing policies by entering the residence hall, going upstairs and inside a student’s room, Voorhies said. If Scott was returning a student to the residence hall, he should have turned that student over to a supervisor, Voorhies said.

Scott is a university staff member and was on duty at the time he entered Humphreys. He was identified by the surveillance video that monitors entrances to the residential halls, said Reggie Houser, UA security director.

As of Wednesday afternoon  Houser could not confirm that  Scott has been fired. Other administrators and the suspect need to be notified first, he said. Scott had been suspended from his job, Houser said.

The Humphreys resident reported Friday that she was raped in her room, a UA Police Department official said.

According to the booking report, the student had been drinking at a party and does not remember coming home, but she later woke up and found a man assaulting her between 2 and 3 a.m., Lt. Gary Crain said. An arrest was made 12 hours later.

Scott, a 38-year-old black man living in Fayetteville, had an hourly position as a “security rover.”

The Security Rover program has one primary function – to be on the outside of residence halls and ensure security by pulling and locking doors, he said.

Electronic surveillance is also in place so rovers can be alerted when a particular problem – such as an open door – needs to be addressed, Houser said.

Security rovers work between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. 365 days a year, Houser said. The security rovers have done their job discreetly for 16 years and are a part of an valuable service – the program doesn’t have a black eye, he said.

“Somebody made a mistake, and they need to pay for the mistake,” Houser said.

Rovers on patrol carry radios and an ID badge and have FOB access to campus buildings, he said. The only reason they have been given restricted access to residential halls is to avoid bad weather, Houser said.

Security rovers are dispatched out of Hotz Hall by foot and continue their patrol from there, Houser said. Their access is restricted to the ground floor of residence halls, and they immediately break policy if they enter an area where students live, with exception given to residential halls that have students living near the entrances and exits of buildings, he said.

“I feel horrible about what happened, and anything I can do to fix it, I will,” Houser said.

Houser said the program is under very tight review to prevent a situation like this from ever happening again.

One option is to talk to vendors about electronically preventing rovers to go upstairs. For example, because Maple Hill requires FOB access to the elevators, it is possible to program a rover’s FOB to only open the main entrance and not the elevators, he said.

However, the suspect in Friday’s rape “tailgated” into the building by following a student who had already used his or her FOB access to open the door.

“Electronics don’t tell when someone tailgates,” Houser said.

Once the case and evidence is reviewed, the district attorney will file the final charges, Crain said.