To the Editor:
The Opinion piece authored by David Parker '00, and published in the September 30th edition of The Dartmouth ["Emphasize Responsible Drinking"] deserves some clarification. Parker asserts that the Department of Safety & Security "has the right to enter our rooms at any time." This is simply not true.
Safety & Security (NOT Campus Police since 1987!) does not have the right nor do we make it a practice to enter private rooms at random. Entry must be in response to an emergency, or in response to a complaint, e.g. noise, an unregistered social event, vandalism, or some other specific concern. In responding to complaints, strict guidelines must be followed.
When a complaint is received (and almost every one comes from other students) Officers will respond to a room, knock and announce our presence. If there is no answer, or if the noise is too loud to permit our knocking to be heard (we don't hesitate to knock very loudly!), then Officers may key the door if the complaint warrants further investigation. For example, if we are called to a room for a noise complaint and there is no noise on our arrival, we are not going to enter the room looking for the source. Conversely, if we are called to a room where an extremely ill student was seen entering and receive no answer to our knocking and announcing, we will enter to check on the welfare of the student.
In the matter of confiscation, the only items which we may confiscate are those in plain view AND in violation of College policy. We do not and have never seized "anything we might find," which implies a search beyond that which is in plain view. That, as Parker accurately asserts, would not be "legal in America".
