N.H. HIGH COURT OKS ROOM SEARCHES

The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled Friday that Dartmouth Safety and
Security Officers are not acting as agents of the state when they turn
contraband found in students' rooms over to the police.

The Court overruled a decision by the Lebanon District Court, which ruled
that Dartmouth violated the 4th Amendment rights of Adam Nemser '01 by
handing confiscated marijuana over to the Hanover Police Department.

The drug seizure -- which occurred while current Thayer student Nemser was a
Dartmouth undergraduate -- was part of longstanding College policy that will
not be altered as a result of the Court's ruling, said Daniel Nelson, senior
associate dean of the College.

Nelson refused to comment on the specifics of the case, but he said that
Safety and Security officers often happen by chance on illegal drugs when
students lock themselves out of their rooms and ask to be let back in.

Dartmouth turns the drugs over to the police but does not provide them with
any other information, Nelson said.

Hanover Police Chief Nick Giaccone explained that his officers must obtain a
warrant in order to have access to information about the origin of the
drugs.

The Court took this as evidence that Safety and Security and the Hanover
Police Department are two separate entities -- and that Dartmouth, as a
private institution, is not violating constitutional prohibitions on
unreasonable search and seizure, Giaccone said.

"Safety and Security Officers are not agents of the state. They don't have
power of arrest, they don't have control over the Hanover Police in any
way," he said.

Neither Nemser nor his lawyers could be reached for comment.

Nelson criticized a Valley News article that he said misrepresented the
basic issues at stake in the case, he said.

"A reader would be led to the erroneous conclusion that the issues in the
case were about Dartmouth's prerogative to search student rooms," he said.

In fact, Safety and Security does just what its name implies, Nelson said,
and only searches students' rooms in the rarest of circumstances, when they
believe a student may be posing a threat to the rest of the campus, for
instance, by possessing an dangerous weapon.

"As a matter of practice and policy, Dartmouth does not randomly or
arbitrarily search student rooms," Nelson said. "Dartmouth doesn't go
randomly throwing open student doors, peering under window shades, stuff
like that."