PUBLICIZE RLHS ROOM ENTRY POLICY

What students don't know won't hurt them. At least, that's the message
that Residential Life and Housing Services seems to be sending with
its recent failure to publicly release its newly codified room entry
policy.

Students should know that the new protocol outlines, among other
things, the conditions under which Duke University Police Department
officers may enter a student's room without consent. The police are
required to issue a warning through the door if the student is not
present or refuses to respond, but residential staff members are
permitted to enter the room should suspicions of drug use resurface
later in the year.

As the policy currently stands, residents have a right to a first-time
warning but are vulnerable to an unauthorized inspection of their room
afterward. Given this fact, it is clear that special emphasis must be
placed on informing students as soon as such a warning is issued, and
before a second attempt at confrontation takes place. Also, as a
practical provision for students not in their rooms at the time of a
DUPD visit, the policy should stipulate a minimum time window between
the first and second attempts, in addition to the e-mail notification
from an RLHS assistant dean.

According to Terry Lynch, RLHS assistant dean for staff development
and Central Campus, the protocol is intended to provide clarification
to residential hall staff rather than introduce policy changes. But
this is hardly justification for not releasing the new guidelines to
the general student body after introducing them to the RAs during
general training in August. Policy clarification is not a privilege
exclusive to RAs and RCs; common sense dictates that it is a right
that should be extended to all students.

On its face, the so-called clarification is a retroactive attempt to
clear up some of the confusion surrounding the raid that took place in
Randolph dormitory last Spring, and perhaps quell what remains of the
controversy about the legitimacy of the search and seizure of student
property, some of it apparently leafy and green, and all of it legal.

As incidents like the Randolph raid suggest, the establishment of
clear guidelines may go a long way in preventing students and
residential hall staff from being unfairly placed into compromising
positions in the future. But what is at issue is RLHS's failure to
publicize the approved protocol or provide students with direct access
to the details, calling into question not just the impetus behind the
policy's creation but more importantly, the focus in its
implementation. Put another way, RLHS's disregard for student opinion
makes it unclear whether it is actively looking to protect the best
interests of students and the community at large, or cooking up
policies primarily to avoid another embarrassment involving bags of
oregano and powdered sugar.

RLHS's handling of the room entry policy, as well as quiet hours and
loft regulations, makes for three strikes in three weeks. In a bizarre
twist on a disturbing trend of not gauging student opinion prior to
implementing policy changes, RLHS seems to have most recently
dispensed with informing students about policy changes after the fact.

Something must be done. And it goes without saying that students
should be told when it is.