Police are searching for a man who a female student said masturbated in front of her in a McElwain Hall stairwell Friday night.

Penn State Police Sgt. Don Hazel said the man entered the residence hall behind the woman and followed her to the dorm's main stairwell. In the second-floor landing, Hazel said, the woman observed the man expose himself and begin masturbating.

Hazel said the warmer weather brings more cases of "exposure."

"I don't know if it's because of springtime and the birds and the bees," Hazel said. "It's really not normal behavior."

Hazel said the man remains at large.

"They usually don't stick around for the police to apprehend them," he said.

McElwain resident Kathleen Bisset (sophomore-English) summed up the incident in one word: "foul."

Shoshana Gitlin (junior-biology), another resident of the all-female dorm, said the incident makes her nervous.

"When there's a guy in here, you know he doesn't belong," she said. "Any guy that comes in here knows he can find a girl."

According to the Penn State Police crime alert, the suspect is described as a 6-foot-2, dark-skinned black man in his early to mid-20s with a stubble beard and thin build.

The man was wearing a medium gray hooded sweatshirt, light blue jeans, a dark brown belt, white tennis shoes and a black jacket, police said. It is unclear if the man is a student.

Hazel said the man, if caught, could face charges of indecent exposure, criminal trespass and open lewdness along with fines or jail time.

He added that indecent exposure is simply "showing your genitalia to someone," and lewdness implies that you receive sexual gratification from the exhibition.