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Dorm Rights
SniperGuy
SniperGuyGamingRegistered User regular
SniperGuyGamingRegistered User regular
This is purely for a "curiosity" type thing, wanting to be educated. Nothing in this post has happened to me, though our campus police have a bad reputation.
Dorm Privacy!
Many of us have been or currently are college students and have experienced the wonder that is a Dormitory. The school I attend has dorms, but rumors abound as to what exactly a student's rights inside the dorm are. Can the police enter whenever the feel like it? Do they need a warrant or probably cause? I'm really not sure! A friend mentioned to me that it depended on the lease, but the housing contract didn't mention anything about.
I once saw a youtube video that went step by step for explaining exactly what your rights are if you're pulled over by a cop. Not being able to search the car without probable cause or a warrant, etc. Is there anything like that for dorms? And if anyone knows where that video is, that'd be great.
My room situation is as thus: Main kitchen/living room. Two bedrooms, two baths. Enter through the kitchen, go through living room, into hall, 2 rooms and a bathroom in each hall. So that's two barriers of privacy, the front door, and my actual bedroom door, both of which have deadbolts.
So, anyone know the deal, or should I go question campus police/the housing office?
Dorm Privacy!
Many of us have been or currently are college students and have experienced the wonder that is a Dormitory. The school I attend has dorms, but rumors abound as to what exactly a student's rights inside the dorm are. Can the police enter whenever the feel like it? Do they need a warrant or probably cause? I'm really not sure! A friend mentioned to me that it depended on the lease, but the housing contract didn't mention anything about.
I once saw a youtube video that went step by step for explaining exactly what your rights are if you're pulled over by a cop. Not being able to search the car without probable cause or a warrant, etc. Is there anything like that for dorms? And if anyone knows where that video is, that'd be great.
My room situation is as thus: Main kitchen/living room. Two bedrooms, two baths. Enter through the kitchen, go through living room, into hall, 2 rooms and a bathroom in each hall. So that's two barriers of privacy, the front door, and my actual bedroom door, both of which have deadbolts.
So, anyone know the deal, or should I go question campus police/the housing office?
SniperGuy on
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There will definetly be cases where something that is legal will be met with disciplinary action (eg: getting kicked out of the dorms or even expelled) by the university.
edit: and also cases where a search that would be ordinarily be illegal without a warrant will be legal either because of special rights the university has over you because you are in a dorm or because the university will threaten disciplinary action if you don't "choose" to comply.
If something like this happens, and you feel you are in the wrong, how would someone fight that?
I don't think someone could. People can be punished by colleges for things they do off campus even when they don't live in dorms.
Really, the best thing to do is to treat your dorm room like everyone should treat their car: assume the Constitution is suspended inside it (that's from my Constitutional Law prof).
In my experience the RA's try to deal with everything themselves unless there are drugs involved. The RAs could not come into our room without permission, but if we were inside and refused to open the door for them they could call the cops, who could get in. If the RA's smelled weed or had other reason to believe there were drugs in a room they would just call the cops right away.
Your best bet is to not give anyone any reason to want to search your room. The chances of you being unfairly searched when you are doing nothing wrong are pretty low.
Here's a lengthy one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqMjMPlXzdA&feature=fvw
Also a series of "How To" videos:
If you lease an apartment, you are entitled to possession of that apartment and have the right to prevent entry of the owner.
Students (for the most part, though there may be exceptions) do not lease dorms. Rather, their housing contract is usually a license to live there. The school retains a right of entry and can give access to others, including the police.
Without the school's permission, police will need to go through traditional venues to get the authority to conduct a search (ie a warrant).
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No, TLO is in the context of a public school that we're all required to attend. A dorm room in a university is different.
Hint: they can make that shit up.
However, that was university policy where I went. Check with the Resident Assistant, theyre trained to know this shit. If the RA doesnt, then someone in the residential office WILL, and they have to tell you because its a contract youve signed into.
As someone who worked in res life for a long time, this is correct. A school will usually give police anything they desire, including their students heads on a platter.
That's the video I was looking for, so hurray!
I definitely plan to go sit down and ask my RA about it. So basically, by living on campus, i've given up most of my privacy rights, unless the lease/contract actually states differently?
I ask in reply, what manner of mischief are you planning?
I mean, if you're underage and have a case of beer in a dry hall, but you aren't sharing, are you breaking the law and the rules? Yes. Are you probably safe? Probably, if you're discrete. RA's will generally tolerate a good deal if you're discrete, but if you make them do something they will. If there's an obvious smell, or you clearly have open bottles laying around with your door open, you're not being discrete.
Now, if you're cooking meth with stolen dining hall dishes then you're probably going to get caught, and you're probably going to jail.
As someone who has also worked in Res Life for a long time, at three different Universities, I can tell you this is simply untrue. We never opened the door for the police unless they had a search warrant. The exception, however, is that if it was a roommate instigating the investigation, we would have them call the police and invite them into the room, which meant if there was anything in plain sight at that point, it was fair game.
I'm not doing or planning any of these things. I'm over 21 for one, I just want to know my actual down to it legal rights.
Getting away with drinking in the dorms isn't my objective, heh.
Having read the code of conduct and releases when signing to live on campus it became very clear to me that my rights, and those of other students, were rather limited. I would highly advise you to read you code of conduct or whatever you get and in there you should be able to find out what rights you have as a dorm resident. Even better, contact your Dean of Students?
That doesn't mean you don't have rights under that contract or under your uni's dorm policy; mine had a fairly detailed breakdown of what was grounds for entry into a room and what wasn't.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
The rules really very depending upon the institution. Were I was, RAs had to ask permission to enter the room and to open closets, etc. Often we'd get around this by just casually asking if we could come in and telling people to open their fridge. I never wrote anyone up in the three years I was an RA, I just used the resident's ignorance against them, busted them with what they had and told them how stupid they were as they poured their booze down the sink. As far as the cops go, I just called them whenever I smelled weed and let them deal with it.
At another college RAs could confiscate speakers, etc. if someone violated the quiet hours, especially during finals.
Don't be a jackass, get out of the dorm and party elsewhere. It's really sad if you don't.
These are all stories which I won't get into because they're rez specific. What I will say is I only heard of a student's room getting tossed once, and that guy was fucking asking for it (again, no specifics, but he basically lived his life telling everyone in any position of authority he could find about the wide rainbow of drugs in his room just to see what happened). Maybe it's because we're Canadian here and everyone could legally drink/small amount of pot. Stash whatever you're hiding between your mattress and boxspring, or in some place no one will want to look, and you should be okay.