utd students on campus are approached by people claiming to be traveling monks or temple goers asking for money.
People often claim to be from a local temple and hand out religious texts, saying famous figures like albert einstein read those books. they also ask the student for compensation in the form of donations. David Garvin, a computer engineering senior, was approached by a man near Founder North on February 21. 1.
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said it seemed like the man shouldn’t be there and was constantly looking around as he spoke. The man mentioned that he usually accepts donations for books and pulled out a card reader when Garvin said he had no cash.
“She took books out of her bag,” Garvin said. “The first one was on Hinduism, and he had (books on) Hinduism and Buddhism. it was not just a religion. he kept mentioning names of historical figures like, ‘oh, so and so jefferson was in on this.’ At first, it didn’t bother me too much, but then he started talking about Sanskrit, and at this point I had three books in my hands and I was trying not to be rude even though I was late for class.”
seth ray, a third year physics student, was stopped by a traveling monk outside the green room last year. he said the man was not very aggressive and was wearing hipster clothes.
“I said I didn’t have any money and he said ‘well, money’s not an issue, you can have the book as long as you read it,'” Ray said. “He seemed super calm, it was almost like he was very, very relaxed.”
mercury attempted to contact the ray of the temple he was invited to, the hare krishna temple in dallas, but could not be reached for more information on this practice, and if these people are even from his temple.
the utd police department handles the removal of unauthorized persons on campus. lt. ken mackenzie said that since she joined the department in 2010, she had frequently seen solicitations on campus and in many different forms. Although he was not familiar with “traveling monks,” all attorneys are told to leave campus unless they are part of a student-supported program.
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“If you contact someone like that, they’re supposed to be approved, and the best they can do is call us and we’ll send someone to approve the feature,” he said. “I’ll tell you right now that anyone here selling books or asking for money is not going to be approved.”
mackenzie said these types of scammers typically target utd and other college campuses due to how small the campus areas are and the concentrated population density. she said attorneys often approach college students because of their willingness to give. It’s hard to help students who have fallen victim to these scams by giving them money to make up for the amount they donated, because students volunteer to give money and collecting those funds can’t be considered an offence, she said.
“There are all these young students who maybe don’t know any better, even though they’re smart,” mackenzie said. “When it comes to common sense, sometimes they are still learning. At this university, we have so many people who are so smart that they are victims because they are so generous and they want to help people.”
People who receive a criminal trespass warning cannot return. if they return, they are arrested on the spot. if students encounter any type of solicitation, they should call the non-emergency police number, 972-883-2222, or simply 2222 on any campus phone, and a police officer will be dispatched to their location.
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