Can an RA unlock your door and walk in unannounced?

Christmas of my sophomore year, my grandmother bought all of her granddaughters a personal safety clip. According to the directions, I’m supposed to wear the clip on my shirt and if I’m ever attacked, I’m supposed to rip the device off, causing the alarm to sound, and throw it as far away from my attacker as I can.

To be honest, I’m not sure what happens after that, the directions never provided me with a step two. Am I supposed to fight back? Or do I just play dead and hope someone comes to my rescue after hearing the obnoxious sound?

Moral of the story is: after nearly 1.5 years of owning the device, I haven’t once thought about taking it out of the box, thanks to the sense of security I feel at this University. There hasn’t been an instance on this campus when I felt unsafe walking around, no matter the time of day or level of intoxication. And that is something that not every college age person can say.

But at what cost does this sense of security come?

This morning at breakfast, one of my friends told me at around 2 a.m. last night she woke up to someone opening her locked door and inspecting her room. She claims there was no sound or probable cause for someone to come into her room – queue red flag number one.

Obviously I was annoyed for my friend that she got woken up by such an odd occurrence, personally I would be furious if someone interrupted my sleep, but I didn’t really think much of the situation until hours later when another one of my friends who lives in the same dorm told me an eerily similar story.

She came home from the bars around 2:45 am. She wasn’t drunk and wasn’t stumbling. She simply walked back to her room and got ready for bed. As she was laying there trying to fall asleep, she heard the sound of keys and her knob turning. Freaked out, she immediately got out of bed and went to open the door. There she found her R.A. claiming that she was simply coming in to check to make sure everything was ok. Thus, came red flag number two.

Immediately, I was curious to know whether or not this was legal for Notre Dame to do.

Turns out, it is legal.

Du Lac states that by signing the housing agreement we granted the University the right to inspect our dorm rooms. (Maybe it’s time I start reading contracts before I sign them…)

Housing contract: The University reserves the right: to inspect rooms for cleanliness or to make repairs; and to enter rooms without a search warrant and search anything therein (including personal belongings) for the purpose of maintaining security, discipline, and the orderly operation of an educational institution.

But, my question is why.

If the lights were off, there was no sound coming from the room, and therefore there was no probable cause for entry in either situation, why did dorm authorities feel it was necessary to “check- in” on these individuals?

Not only that, but why didn’t the RA feel obligated to knock on the door before unlocking it and walking in?

One of the RA’s in my dorm informed me “technically an RA or any member of hall staff can go into someone’s room, but in RA training they really emphasized that you need to have a reason for entering.

“Take drinking for example. An RA is allowed to enter the room if there are signs of abusive drinking behavior – someone screaming ‘shots’ or hearing a ping pong ball. However, even in that scenario we are trained to knock first, and only if no one will let you in, you must announce that you are an RA and are going to come in with your key.”

As mentioned earlier, I am extremely grateful for the sense of security I feel at this campus. While I’m glad I don’t have to worry about being attacked, I also don’t want to have to worry about someone walking into my room and searching my personal belongings without proper reasoning.

I fully understand that the University is creating and abiding by these rules in order to protect that same sense of security I just highlighted. Having said that, I also think the University needs to recognize that sometimes too much security can cause insecurity among students.

Even just a simple knock and declaration of being an RA would be a sufficient solution to the problem, a solution that apparently is already in existence, but not always utilized.