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Oct. 10, 2007

Between a Rock and a High Place

The toughest part about being a resident adviser might not be the work itself — acting as students’ guide, muse and de facto event planner — or even the hours on call late at night. It could be the nature of the role, which asks those who fill it to gain their residents’ trust while at the same time enforcing rules they know are often broken.

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That’s traditionally been the case with underage drinking in dormitories as well as other campus life policies, such as noise regulations and visitation rules. Drugs fall into this category too. Since substance abuse has greater legal consequences for students, it is this issue that can create conflict for RAs, who are required at many campuses to call the police when they smell marijuana or believe students to be using the drug.

At the University of Maryland at College Park, recent student pressure has raised questions about RAs’ role in enforcing campus marijuana policy. Beginning in the fall of 2006, initiatives in the Student Government Association as well as the campus Residence Hall Association group led administrators to seriously reconsider their policies for dorm drug use — especially marijuana — by reducing some cases to a minor violation.

This semester, the campus chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy began circulating a letter to RA’s, dated Oct. 1, which stated, “Did you know that according to the Department of Resident Life, you are not required to call the police when handling situations in which marijuana use is suspected in the residence halls?”

That prompted a competing letter from the administration, which reminded RA’s of university policy. They “definitely do not have the option of not reporting [marijuana use], and in point of fact, where we have come to over the years is RA’s routinely involve the police if they think they’re looking at a drug situation,” said Steve Petkas, the associate director for student and staff development at Resident Life.

Despite the push for lesser sanctions on marijuana use, the administration backed away from any major rule changes but did leave the door open for some discretion in determining punishments. For example, for cases of possession in small amounts, the standard sanction is the student’s removal from campus housing for a year, although the severity can be challenged in the appeals process. The traditional loss of housing typically comes with a suspension, unless a student agrees to two years of drug testing.

Now, considerations normally reserved for appeal have been shifted to the initial decision process, conducted by community directors in dormitories. In practice, that could mean the reduction of some sanctions to a semester of no campus housing, or even a slap on the wrist.

Students who oppose the university’s policy tend to compare marijuana to alcohol, pointing out that underage drinking is also illegal but that the consequences for each can be vastly different.

“Alcohol ... is an ever-present issue. However, our RA’s are instructed to ‘pour out’ alcohol into the nearest receptacle if found in possession of it on campus, regardless of their age,” said Anastacia Cosner, the president of Students for Sensible Drug Policy on campus, in an e-mail. “While if they suspect marijuana use, police are called immediately, opening the floodgates for a slew of overly harsh and long-reaching sanctions.”

Petkas said the policy is for RA’s to accompany students to the bathroom and watch them pour out their own drinks. Part of the difference, he said, is that marijuana can be detected by smell, yet that is no indication as to how many students are using it behind closed doors and what privacy issues might be at stake.

“People usually aren’t toking up and making a heck of a lot of noise,” he said. For alcohol, that is all too often the case so that RA’s can “get a sense of how many people you’re dealing with.”

Yet that still leaves RA’s in the position of calling the police on their residents for a crime whose punishment they may not agree with. Petkas acknowledged that a minority of resident advisers might look the other way: “Do I think that’s the norm? No. Do I think that’s occasional? ... Sure.”

But he pointed out that in the past two years, the university had handled 92 drug cases in which a student had been found responsible. “We haven’t had a shortage of drug cases that we’ve been handling through our judicial process,” he said.

One RA at Maryland, who wanted to remain anonymous, explained how he and some of his fellow advisers think about the issue. In a Facebook message, he wrote: “In fact, I’m an RA, not a cop, I do not like the policing aspect of being an RA. If the essence of being an RA is to build community while maintaining a safe and clean environment, then as long as the activity is not detrimental to those principles, then I don’t care. Over policing on my part would quite hypocritical; I am a college student just as much as I am an RA.”

Cosner, in her e-mail, also framed it in terms of an RA’s position over his or her residents.

“... I think that is an unfair position for RA’s to be put in as well as an unfair amount of power distributed to 18-, 19-, 20-year-old resident [advisers] who, at the onset of the odor of marijuana, could significantly impact or ruin a student’s collegiate and post-collegiate life,” she said.

— Andy Guess

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Comments

how to destroy trust

This entire story is a good reason for students not to live on campus. For small amounts of drugs, actual criminal penalties are far less then anything the school can dish out. In that jurisdiction, in most cases a first-time offender charged with simple possession can avoid a conviction and jail time. (But, this isn’t legal advice, and possession of marijuana is still a crime.)

Potential students should be aware of an RA’s obligations BEFORE coming to the school. This article also shows the climate of distrust that the administration has developed – on purpose. At the moment, students will be (and in many places, are) afraid to tell an RA about someone that is passed out, or even a fire, out of fear of repercussions.

Larry, at 7:30 am EDT on October 10, 2007

Differing Penalties

I find campus advocates like this amusing. Loss of housing, while annoying, is hardly life altering. How about the child in baltimore who is far more likely to receive a jail sentence if caught with marijuana? And who would most certainly feel a greater impact of not qualifying for federal aid? Why not advocate more stringently for them, instead of advocating for your classmates to be held to a lesser standard. I disagree with most of these drug policies, but white middle class americans are barely being held to the standards.

And, while they mention that these are young college students being put in positions of power — that is exactly why the policy calls for them to contact the police. They are 21, 22 year olds who aren’t in the best position to handle such a situation — so they call people who are. Would you rather have police officers regularly patrolling the dorms?

Andrea, at 8:05 am EDT on October 10, 2007

Freedom and Compulsion

One key issue is that colleges often force students to live in dorms for a year (or in the case of my institution, Illinois State University, two years). I think if they’re forcing students to live in their dorms, they cannot morally start calling in the police for victimless crimes. Universities should not be in loco parentis, and they also should not be in loco politia.

John K. Wilson, collegefreedom.org, at 8:30 am EDT on October 10, 2007

not about racism

Andrea, Quite the opposite is true. For a first offense “simple” possession charge in MD, a “child” in Baltimore will generally not receive a jail term. Whether a “typical” first offender will have a conviction entered against him differs between jurisdictions within Maryland (due to different prosecutorial policies and judicial procedures). As a practical matter, in the town at issue here, such a defendant would generally NOT lose his financial aid because a judgment would generally not enter. [If you want, I could walk you though a typical resolution of a drug case in DC, or a number of jurisdictions Maryland, Virginia, and a few other states, but I don’t think you care for such boring stuff.]

There is absolutely no indication that people are treated differently based on race. In fact, the county at issue here is largely black, anyway. (Though, obviously repeat offenders are treated differently than first offenders.) If anything, the situation described here actually affords a lesser degree of privacy to the “typical” “white” kid in college.

Secondly, Andrea, the argument is that RAs should simply NOT call the police and that either 1) the policy is ambiguous; or 2) the policy is wrong as a moral and policy matter.

Third, (and this doesn’t really go to Andrea’s argument), the more RAs start performing police-type actions, the more they must themselves at risk for liability under 1983.

Andrea, your allegations of racism are seriously misplaced in this instance.

Larry, at 8:55 am EDT on October 10, 2007

Smoke Free

Having come from a state (IL) that bans smoking in all state-run facilities, including residence halls, and a city (in WI)that bans smoking in public facilities, I find this debate about marijuana use to be ludicrous. Even if MJ was legalized tomorrow, it still would be illegal to smoke it in the residence halls.

As a former Hall Director, I would certainly expect that my RAs would confront someone who was smoking any substance in the residence halls. If they suspected marijuana, I would expect them to call campus PD, because marijuana (and pot paraphenlia) is illegal for everyone in our state and the police would need to confiscate these items. I would never want RAs to put themselves at risk for a drug violation or be accused of using the pot themselves by confiscating pot from a student.

Students with minor possession violations were handled by the campus judicial office rather than the Attoney General’s office. College students who had pot violations got in a lot less trouble that youth in the community. The only time a student was removed from housing for MJ use was due to repeat violations or possession with intent to sell.

As for being a victimless crime — tell that to the student with asthma that lives next door, or the student who purchased pot that was laced with another drug and had to be hospitalized, or the student who was shot during a confrontation about control of the drug trade on campus.

Dominick, at 10:10 am EDT on October 10, 2007

End Drug Prohibition

Dominick, the last two things you mentioned are two of the most important reasons why drug prohibition and the War on Drugs should be ended immediately: So consumers know what they are putting into their own bodies and so we can take drugs out of the hands of violent criminal cartels or gangs and put them into a legal, regulated system.

Tom Angell, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, at 10:25 am EDT on October 10, 2007

Alcohol and marijuana use/possession are not the same under the law, particularly federal law, and therefore cannot be treated as such by campuses who recieve federal funding. Though I have to say that UMCP’s sanctions appear to be on the harsh side. Even that is not a valid argument, as many campuses have in fact instituted harsher sanctions for alcohol violations in recent years, under public pressure. RAs cannot be put in position of discretion when policy violations are also violations of law. Marijuana as a “victimless” crime is irrelevant as it is still a crime. Unless the federal law changes, campuses (especially public) cannot and will not overlook enforcement. Take up the issue with your federal legislator to get mj taken off the DEA list of controlled substances, not the campus staff doing their jobs. When and if the law changes, I think staff would rather deal with it for what is, a smoking violation. Which, by the way, could result in removal from the dorms after a repeat violation(s).

UC Staffer, at 10:40 am EDT on October 10, 2007

The law is the law

I’m disturbed by the assumption implied by this statement, indeed, by the whole article: “Yet that still leaves RA’s in the position of calling the police on their residents for a crime whose punishment they may not agree with.”

The law is the law. No individual has the right to decide to change the law by acting as his own judge. For that matter, a contract is a contract. The RAs have agreed to a contract that requires them to follow their employer’s procedure and report drug use to the police. If they don’t like that requirement, they are free to find a different job.

While the law stands, it should be obeyed. While the contract is in force, its stipulations should be honestly followed. An RA who wants to tolerate marijuana use or a student who wants to smoke it is free to try to change the law in our political system. (I hope they don’t succeed, but that’s another matter entirely.) Until that time, there should be a respect for the laws. Otherwise, everyone becomes a law unto himself.

Lincoln Mullen, at 6:05 pm EDT on October 10, 2007

Find “the one!”

“But he pointed out that in the past two years, the university had handled 92 drug cases in which a student had been found responsible. “We haven’t had a shortage of drug cases that we’ve been handling through our judicial process,” he said.”

Find that one student and solve the 92 drugcases; simple enough, eh?

Dr. F. Gump, at 6:05 pm EDT on October 10, 2007

discretion

Mr. Mullen, Guess what? Merely smelling marijuana smoke does not establish that all elements of the state-law crime of marijuana possession are established. Moreover, assuming that the RAs are policemen (which they don’t tell anyone that they are), they are under no obligation to enforce federal laws. Likewise, it appears that this “contract” is ambiguous, and RAs do not have to report everything. Some parts of the administration now seek to revise it beyond its text.

Strangely, because RAs can and do exercise “discretion” smart students will make friends with RAs, so that discretion is exercised in their favor. After all, the availability of housing is riding on the good graces of an RA.

There are many crimes committed every day that most – if not all — of us witness. Few of us report them all. Instead, we use our judgment regarding which ones we want to report.

Mr. Staffer, In most cases even state cops have no obligation to enforce federal law. In fact, some have an affirmative obligation NOT to enforce it.

Larry, at 10:05 pm EDT on October 10, 2007

Wow- I wanted to talk about some inconsistencies in these arguments!

“Some parts of the administration seek to revise it beyond its text"- well, even if this is true, of course they can do! RAs are EMPLOYEES of the administration. It’s not some third party’s job to tell the RAs what they are allowed to do. Just like any boss, the University can clarify what its employees are or are not required to do. Also, requiring the RAs to call the police to handle marijuana incidents addresses precisely the problems Larry and others have raised- the RAs have no discretion and can’t play favorites, and the RAs dont need to determine if any laws have been broken, the police can do that.

And even if the laws aren’t broken, all the penalties that people are complaining about (loss of housin, etc) dont come from the police, they come from the university.

The reality is: possession, sale, use or marijuana in a community living environment has dangers and detriments associated with it- fire hazard, affects on people with respiratory illnesses, and the attraction of criminal elements to campus, to name a few. The University has a right to address these dangers and disruptions to community, just like it addresses other dangers and disruptions. To argue it has no negative affect is not credible. If you think the rules and penalties are too harsh, keep working to change them. Want to reduce hte criminal element piece by getting your legislature to legalize marijuana? More power to you. If you dont want to face housing loss, move off campus, but remember your landlord can choose not to renew your lease if you are caught doing drugs, even in a private apartment. In any case, why put your fellow students (RAs) in a position where their peers think they are immoral or inappropriate for doing their campus job? What about the ramifications for them if they decide to listen to you, and lose their jobs? I guess all that doesn’t matter, as long as you can smoke up without punishment!

Evan, at 12:15 pm EDT on October 11, 2007

There is a diffrence

Lets not forget th major diffences between drinking in a room and smoking. For one thing Marijuna is a drug witch is often sold in accompany of lots of money and sometimes guns. Yes, there is danger in confronting drunk students, but the danger in knocking on a door where drugs are present without knowing what you are dealing with can cost an RA thier life. Also having drugs on a school campus is a much larger legal sitation then if it was in the greater city area. In some states havinging even less then a ounce within 1000 feet of a school or daycare is a misterminor vs. a violation if it was on a street corner.

Doc, at 6:00 pm EDT on October 11, 2007

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