They've done it again.
Recently, there has been a spate of reports of College officials entering students' rooms unannounced to check whether everything is on order -- radiators, smoke detectors and so on. One individual went to take a shower and came back to find his door locked. Another came home to find his door locked and had to be let in by Safety and Security, only to find that his chair had been moved underneath the smoke detector, with mud covering it and the floor.
And these cases are only among people I know; there are undoubtedly many similar stories out there. I don't believe I'm a victim (yet), but then, when an Facilities, Operations and Management official can simply waltz into and out of my room when I'm not there, how am I to know whether my privacy has been violated or not?
These entries have come without prior warning and, in many cases, with no sign that there has been any entry at all, except for a locked door. Part of what makes Dartmouth unique is the sense of security and trust that comes with living in such isolation; I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of students keep their doors unlocked during the day, and if just as many do not even carry their keys with them.
We don't really have to lock our doors during the day. Something suspicious is no doubt going on when we leave our doors unlocked and come back to find them locked -- something, ironically, that is making us insecure. Our new, fancy, multimillion dollar-dorm lock system may be able to protect us from the shower peeping of a few perverted townsfolk, but they cannot protect us from the intrusions of school officials whom we're ostensibly supposed to trust.
If the College wants to give us the impression that the Bill of Rights matters here -- something that, time and time again, they've shown is untrue -- then the least they could do, if nothing else then for the sake of appearances, would be to cease these intrusive activities, or, failing that, at least warn us that they will be performing them. But, after three and a half years of repeatedly having to put up with this sort of behavior, not only am I no longer fazed by it, but I get the impression that the College might actually be proud of its ability to have its way with students' rights.
Sure, dormitories are College property. But let's imagine for a moment that we're out in the real world, living in apartments. How long do you think a landlord will be able to keep his apartments occupied if he gathers a reputation for breaking into tenants' homes without warning or discernible cause? That behavior would not be tolerated there, so why must we deal with it here?
As the College would say, "for our own security, of course." Just as imposing Safety and Security walkthroughs in Greek houses is for everyone's security. Right. What's more, in that case, the College isn't merely breaking into tenants' rooms they own, but entering homes that are privately owned.
I stopped buying it long ago, and I can only hope that others are beginning to come around. With privacy-violating incidents routine, the College cannot justify each one as a case of "protecting our security." And they certainly are not helping their own cause when someone from FO&M jokingly tells us he was merely "looking for pot."
This sort of behavior must be stopped. In the time I've spent at this school I've seen students' rights trampled upon repeatedly in the name of buzzwords like "security" and "community," with the College's status as a private institution essentially providing it free reign over the student body. What's worse, students have become so numb to the repeated violation of their rights that they have come to accept it without question.
This state of affairs is simply unacceptable, and while part of me is glad to be leaving Dartmouth for, ironically, the secure world of the big city where my rights will actually mean something, it also scares me to see such events become accepted as the norm. Each additional time the College violates our rights without resistance, it provides precedent and makes the next time that much harder to stop. As if the current state of affairs, when Safety and Security can enter private property at any time, when FO&M can enter your room at any time and when private words between friends can make one subject to severe disciplinary action, were not bad enough, who knows how much worse it can get?
I'm sure the College is thinking that very question: just how invasive can we get before students start to put up a fight? When mandatory closed-circuit cameras are installed in every hallway? When all email and website access is actively monitored? When an S & S officer sits at every dinner table or attends every fraternity meeting to monitor conversation?
Ironically, as many students clamor for the importance of civil liberties across the country as the search for terrorists continues to intensify, they forget to pay attention to their own civil liberties, or lack thereof, right here at Dartmouth. The College is taking its "we're a private school so we can do whatever we want to you and you can't do a thing about it" mentality too far. And, in my humble opinion, before we can fight for everyone else, we should fight for ourselves.
