Police are looking for an unidentified man who indecently exposed himself to a female student at about 2:45 p.m. Tuesday on the east side of the HUB-Robeson Center.
The female student sat down in a chair on the building's first floor and saw a man sitting in a chair next to her exposing his genitalia and masturbating, Penn State Police said. The student then grabbed her belongings and left the area, police said.
Police could not confirm if the man is a Penn State student but described him as a white college-aged male with an average build and dirty blonde hair, police said.
He is 6-foot-2 and was wearing blue-and-white shorts, a long-sleeve blue T-shirt and sneakers, police said. He was carrying a dark colored backpack, police said.
This isn't the first indecent exposure this semester. On March 2, a female resident in East Halls reported to police that a skinny man with dark eyes indecently exposed himself to her while she was in one of the women's communal bathrooms, police said.
Last semester, four similar incidents -- all of which occurred on campus -- were reported to Penn State Police, according to police records.
Despite it all, authorities don't believe indecent exposure is a growing problem, Penn State Police Deputy Director Tyrone Parham said.
"We don't see this as a trend," Parham said. "This is pretty random. This is pretty out of the ordinary."
Bill Brouse, HUB Manager of Information and Events, said police had not contacted him about the event.
But like Parham, Brouse doesn't think students should be afraid of future occurrences happening at the HUB.
"It sounds like an isolated incident," he said. "I don't see it as something that's an ongoing threat."
Parham said there were no other witnesses of the incident, but police examining HUB surveillance videos to identify the man. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact authorities.
"We like people to dial 911 if they ever see something like this happening," he said. "We'd like students to call us right away."
