Picture Perfect

Mood: annoyed

Campus Events I attended this weekend: RHA Formal, Coffee Shop (Talent Show), Acapella Concert, NRHH Inductions


I was sitting in my office on Friday, when my Housing Manager stopped by. The Housekeeping staff had found a digital camera. Nice as they are, they decided to look at the pictures to try and figure out whose camera it was. And as they did, they noticed that the majority of the pictures depicted residents drinking in this building (a first-year hall and also a dry building).

I called our judicial office and asked them what to do. They suggested that I hold on to the camera for right now, meet with the students and then decide whether or not I wanted to file a complaint. I'm going to be honest; I didn't really love that answer. I wish they had just told me to document the situation. I mean, maybe I'm looking at it too much in black and white, but if I am aware of a policy violation, I feel that it is my responsibility to report it. I'd still have that conversation with the students, hoping they'll learn something from it, but I also think they'll learn a lot from having to deal with the consequences given to them by judicial.
I was walking back to my apartment and was in a rush - I think it was Saturday or maybe later on Friday (wow, it's scary that its only Sunday and I can't remember if this happened yesterday or the day before) - and one of the students stopped me. He asked if I had his camera. I told him it depended on what his camera looked like. After he identified his camera, I explained that the Housekeeping staff had found it and had looked at the picture in an attempt to identify whose camera it was and found pictures that showed illegal activity on the camera. I asked him what he thought about this. He denied having broken any policies, didn't seem to understand why I thought there was a problem with him drinking underage in a dry building, and just wanted his camera back. I explained that he could have the camera back as soon as the judicial case had been closed, but that I needed to hold on to it while I was writing the report and then I needed to check with our judicial office to see whether or not they needed it as evidence or if they could release it to him. But I emphasized that he'd get his camera back as soon as we could give it back to him.

Well, after that brief and pointless conversation, I decided that I definitely wanted to document the situation. In addition, the roommate of this student had stopped by my office earlier to tell me that he wanted a room change because his roommate was engaging in illegal activities. The roommate also hinted that drugs were involved and that he was afraid that just from being in the room and inhaling second-hand smoke he may not pass a drug test right now. Of course, the roommate didn't feel comfortable pressing charges or even calling a staff member next time this happened. He just wanted to move.
Earlier that week, one of my RAs had also told me that he was concerned about a couple of rooms on his corridor (this one included) because shady activities had been going on, but he had been unable to catch those students.

I'm not all about "getting students in trouble," but I am about abiding by the law and if I know that illegal activities are going on and I finally find a way to prove it, I will do something about it.

I e-mailed all the students in the pictures and told them that I wanted to meet with them on Monday. Then, I didn't think more about the incident - after all we had another documentation last night and all these events going on. But today, I get a phone call from our police department. Apparently the student had called and said that I had taken his camera and was refusing to give it back. I explained the situation to the police. They kept questioning why I was "witholding personal property" until I explained that the judicial office had asked me to hold on to it for right now. Then, they accepted that I could hold on to the camera for right now, but still questioned if I was doing the right thing by documenting someone based on something that I had seen in pictures.

I know that's a tough question. Institutions are struggling with what to do with Facebook and all these other online sites. I've spent some time thinking about all this myself. And here's what I think: I don't think we should go looking for it, but if we find something, we have a responsibility to do something about it. If I walk past a room and I hear noise and the clinking of bottles, I don't ignore it either, do I?
I really think institutions need to come up with some guidelines and policies, so that staff have something to base those "judgment calls" off.

But back to my story: I went to our NRHH Induction. And then, just after I had returned, I got another phone call, again from our police department, again asking me why I hadn't given the student his camera back. And once again I explained the situation, and once again my decisions were questioned over and over again.

And this isn't the first time I'm having issues with our police department. Early in the semester, we asked them to come to an alcohol awareness event and instead of explaining the consequences of bad choices, as we asked them to do, the officers kept going on about how they used to get trashed and one even told the students how she passed out in a ditch once. And then they talked about how, if students are really drunk, they'll just take them home and there won't be any consequences (our ResLife department does not have such a rule, so whenever that happens, the police will drop off these highly intoxicated students and we will then end up documenting them for intoxication and look like the bad guys).
Just a few weeks later, one of my residents was caught smoking pot - he had paraphenalia and a significant amount of pot on him, and the police just gave him a warning. I had my staff document the situation, so at least he had to go through our judicial system, but once again we looked like the bad guys.
Then, I find out the same student as well as several others were caught by a police officer smoking pot outside and the officer just gave them a warning. Since we didn't find out about it until much later, there was nothing I could do. I wonder how many warnings they give...will they realize after 100 warnings that the student doesn't get the message or will 99 do it?
Oh and let's not forget about the police officer keying into my apartment the friday morning of Thanksgiving Break at 4 AM because my window was open and they wanted to secure it and didn't realize I was there (even though they know that advisory staff stay around over break).
Oh and did I mention that all day today, they would call my office phone - which I don't pick up on weekends - then my home phone and then my personal cell phone. My personal cell phone is FOR EMERGENCY USE only!!! An emergency is a student death, something HUGE...not some student complaining because he doesn't want to face the consequences of his actions. It's the weekend!!! I already had a million events to go to...at least allow me during those few hours I have without work!

So much for the police being your friend and helper....

Well, I guess I should go to bed. Especially now that I get to wake up extra early to turn in this incident report and the camera to our judicial office before my first meeting. Oh joy!