Residence halls randomly searched
Campus Times
February 6, 1998
On Super Bowl Sunday, Jan. 25, two campus safety members conducted random
searches throughout all three of the University of La Verne's Residence
Halls.
Of the rooms that were searched, three had alcohol and other policy
violating paraphanelia which were confiscated by campus safety officers
Nancy Stark and Anthony Lopez. Students caught with either were written
up.
Some rooms were searched due to noise complaints or the smell of alcohol,
while the remainder were searched with no probable cause.
The Office of Housing and Residential Life was unaware of the searches
until resident assistants (R.A.s) were asked to assist in conducting them.
On Jan. 28, John Lentz, director of campus safety and transportation,
held an open forum in the West Dining Room to discuss the incident. Members
of Housing, R.A.s, program assistants (P.A.s) and concerned students attended
the forum.
Lentz repeatedly apologized, taking full responsibility for the actions
of campus safety. He was out of town and unaware of the incident when it
occurred.
"I've asked you to come here tonight because I wanted to explain
to you the situation, why they [Stark and Lopez] did what they did and basically
to apologize to those of you whose rooms were searched without probable
cause," said Lentz.
"As you know, basically the University is private property and
the regular rules of search and seizure that apply to law enforcement out
on the street don't apply here. Regardless of that, you value your right
to privacy, we value and respect your right to privacy. So, for those cases
where the officers entered the rooms without probable cause, for those actions
I apologize.
"I apologize for the whole staff. I respect your right to that
privacy. It is not my intent to violate that privacy. It has not been and
will not be policy for Campus Safety Department to conduct these random
searches," Lentz said.
Senior S. Baker Eatmon held the general consensus of the students represented
at the meeting, which was that students' rights had been violated
"In some ways I feel like this policy [Campus Housing] has been
violated, because it reads in here that in all cases, all cases, if the
room entry is made when the resident is not in the room, notification of
entry must be left in the room, and I know many many cases where that has
not happened.
"If students are made to review this book before we sign away our
rights, we have to also have the people who work here know this book and
follow the guidelines," said Eatmon.
Eatmon quoted from the policy, "The University shall exercise the
rights to reasonably and with respect for the resident's rights to be free
from unreasonable searches and intrusions into the study or privacy."
As far as ensuring students' right to privacy, Lentz said, "At
this point all you have is my word. One of my assignments when I came here
was to develop a policy manual, and that will be part of the policy manual
when it is developed."
"It was, unfortunately, a one-time action that will not be repeated.
The conduct is unacceptable on my part and my behalf and therefore will
not be tolerated or happen again," said Lentz.
