The search continues for a murderer who escaped from prison in Chester County, PA on Thursday, August 31st. Authorities are on high alert and are using several tactics to hopefully capture the escaped convict. 

Danelo Cavalcante was convicted of first-degree murder of his girlfriend on August 16th and escaped from Chester County Prison less than two weeks later. He has been described by officials as a “very dangerous man.”

All of this information begs the question: why were Villanova students not directly informed of this event? Chester County prison is fewer than 30 miles away from campus. Given the gravity of the situation and Villanova’s close proximity to the danger, many believe that Villanova students should have been informed of the possible threat. Most students heard about the news on TikTok or did not hear about it at all. 

West Chester University, a campus admittedly much closer to the prison, alerted its students of the situation almost immediately on Thursday. It sent out several alerts, emails and updates since the news first broke. The alerts gave students a description of the man: “five feet tall and weighs 120 pounds with bushy-hair and an unshaven face.” The alerts urged students to “lock their doors” and call 911 if any new information arose. The University limited building access to main doors only and encouraged students to keep their ID cards on them at all times. 

While authorities believe that Cavalcante is headed south and away from West Chester, campus authorities are still being vigilant and encouraging students to do so as well. With the prisoner now miles away from campus, West Chester still assured its students that “increased police presence continues on and around the University.” 

With a neighboring university taking such active measures to protect its students, why has Villanova not even released a statement about campus security resources? 

While the threat is no longer imminent, many would argue that seeing a situation like this so close to our campus would urge University authorities to make sure we knew what to do if anything should ever happen here.  

Clearly, the Department of Public Safety has not found this threat imminent enough to alert students. 

“While the situation involving the escaped prisoner in Chester County is serious, he was never thought to be near our campus, and was last seen on foot approximately 25 miles from Villanova,” Director of Public Safety David Tedjeske said.

This raises an important question for all of us: what is considered a serious-enough threat? 20 miles away from campus? 15 miles? Many students feel the escaped killer is a relevant campus issue, since no one really knows where he is. 

Despite the Department of Public Safety not finding this issue worthy of alerting students, a simple email to the entirety of the school making students aware of the situation would have caused no harm. 

Whether or not the danger is “imminent,” many students feel the need to be made aware of this situation and kept updated. Ultimately, West Chester University has taken nearly every measure to keep students and faculty knowledgeable about the situation, yet Villanova did not even send out an email to address the situation. 

If somehow the killer were to end up on campus, Villanova not addressing the situation would not bode well for it. As for the time being, the police remain on the hunt for Danelo Cavalcante and the Villanova community can only hope for an end to this threat.