As an employee of both Public Safety and Residence Life, last week’s article comparing officers to the Gestapo and encouraging students to stand up for RAs on a “power trip” just made me laugh. A student forfeits his right to privacy when he violates the law (underage consumption of alcohol) with his curtains wide open on his first-story room located at eye-level of a highly trafficked path on the quad, as in the case referred to in the article. Claiming otherwise is similar to arguing with a Fairfield Police officer that when he pulls you over for running a stop sign he has no right to question the 30-rack of beer sitting on your backseat, because it invades your privacy.
Believe me when I say that no RA or officer loves to document students. The paperwork process is incredibly tedious, and if anything deters RAs from documenting more situations, so nobody is going around with binoculars and putting ears to doors for their own satisfaction. RAs and Public Safety officers are mandated reporters, meaning, if they see a situation and fail to report it, they are risking their job, worth over $10,000 to RAs and even more to DPS officers, not to mention fostering the idea that breaking the rules is allowed, which it’s not.
Everyone speeds on the highway, but if you get pulled over, you can’t argue that everybody does it so the rule no longer exists. If you’re under the age of 21 and violating the law by drinking or possessing alcohol, you are personally accepting the risk involved, and should accept the consequences if you happen to not notice a “speed trap.
As for refusing to dump out your alcohol if you are indeed caught, I’d highly recommend against it. Officers and RAs have you dump out the alcohol instead of doing it themselves so that when you lie to Kim Nickolenko about the events of the night, you can not also lie that the RA took your booze for his/her own personal use. If you are still thinking of being insubordinate, remember that Public Safety maintains the right to detain non-cooperative parties for an extended period of time, and the chairs in the office just aren’t that comfortable in cuffs.
Rob Fitzgerald ’08 Gonzaga RA, DPS Dispatcher
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