To the Editor:
In Tuesday's opinion piece ["Emphasize Responsible Drinking"], Dave Parker '00 asks whether the College has a legal right to "enter our rooms at any time, for any reason, and to seize anything they might find."
The Fourth Amendment notwithstanding, the College has the right. Who gave it to them? You did. When you enrolled as a student at Dartmouth College and moved into Dartmouth-owned housing, you effectively waived those rights.
There is a widely held misconception among Dartmouth students which Parker demonstrated yesterday in referring to Safety and Security as "the campus police force." Safety and Security officers are agents of the College, a privately owned and operated institution, and as such are not bound by Constitutional protections against search and seizure, which apply only to agents of the state and Federal governments.
Tellingly, while Safety and Security officers can search college housing at will, they may not enter privately-owned Greek houses or off-campus apartments without the owners' consent; only the Hanover Police can do that, and its officers are covered by Constitutional prohibitions. Dartmouth tacitly encourages this misconception by allowing its officers to use official-sounding ranks, like "Sergeant," which lends them an air of authority.
Safety and Security, remember, has no legal power over Dartmouth students. They can prevent these intrusions by separating from the College, which is, after all, the worst punishment the College can inflict on wrongdoers. Unlike the government, the College is not a democracy, and it has the right, within limits, to set the rules which apply to those who choose to affiliate with it. The right to search its own property is within those limits.
