Hello College blades, I am a sophomore who attends college in Southern California. When I was a freshman I applied to be a Resident Advisor in the dorms and after bullshitting my way through 3 group interviews, a large group processing, and an individual interview I was hired. The free housing is nice, plus I have no roommates, get a monthly stipend, and my parents supply me with additional money. Life is good so I thought I'd explain the dorms and how they work. 1) I am smoking in my room at night, all of a sudden the door bell rings and fake Police Officers are in my room and an RA is demanding my ID. RAs do what are called Rounds. Every night 2 RAs pair up and are responsible for walking through every floor of a specific number of buildings. We are checking for things like parties, loud music and weed, If we smell it then we are instructed to call our Police Services right away and wait for them to come. When they arrive we tell them what room we think it is and then let them do their thing. Afterwards, we come in and take down the ID numbers of everyone involved who is a resident in the dorms. 2) When do RAs do "Rounds"? On Sunday-Thursday RAs do rounds at 7pm and 10pm. On Fridays and Saturdays we do rounds at 10pm and 1am because those are the nights that tend to have the most parties and such. Understand that this doesn't mean you should smoke at 7:15 and think you'll be in the clear because the RAs that are on duty may have just done your building last out of the number of ones they are assigned to do. Because rounds can take up to 40 minutes, I would suggest smoking at 7:45-, 10:45-,1:45-. That way even if it does smell no RAs will be there to smell it. 3) Do I have to give them my ID? If you are a resident in the dorms, you have to give them your ID. Even if it's not your room or your building, if you live in the dorms they will know. If you don't have your ID, it won't get you out of trouble because we carry a roster of everyone who lives in the dorms with their first and last name and ID number. If you don't live in the dorms, you don't have to give them your ID. You don't have to tell them your name. You can actually get up and leave and go straight to your car. You only have to listen to the police officers if you are a resident. 4) Am I in trouble? If they find weed then yes you are in trouble, but not with the University. You may end up getting a ticket and having to go to court, but it'll be like if you went to court for shoplifting you know like not a big deal. If it only smells like weed, they can I guess make you admit you are high but that's about it. The RA will fill out what's called an Information Report. That won't get you in trouble, what will get you in trouble is an Incident Report. That would happen if they found weed or weed paraphernalia(piece, blunt, etc). If they fill out an incident report then you will have to meet with the Park Supervisor, Building Coordinator, whatever they are called at your university. 5) What will happen at this "judicial"? Absolutely nothing. You will not be kicked out of housing or the university. Housing wants your rent money and the University wants your tuition money. You will likely be meeting with some really happy awkward in-between old and young person. They will be suspiciously friendly and try to create an educational moment for you. But don't try any funny business because they will immediately threaten you with this imaginary waiting list that they could replace you with. 6) What does it mean if I am on "Housing Probation"? This means absolutely nothing, unless you get in trouble again within a 6 month period. If you get in trouble a second time, you'll still be fine, but a third or fourth time will likely get you kicked out. 7) Where is the best place to smoke ? Believe it or not, it actually takes a lot of smoke to linger in the hallway. If you smoke on your balcony and out of a sploof that would probably be best. If you don't have a balcony then it would be best to blow into the ventilator in your kitchen. If you don't have a kitchen then you are best off blowing it out of your window and then booking it to a friend who lives in another building. Remember you can always smoke and then immediately leave because if you're not physically there then you can't get in trouble when the police get there. DO NOT blow into your bathroom fan. That thing is a joke, it won't do anything to mask the smell. ESPECIALLY if you share a bathroom with other people on your floor. Too much traffic and someone is likely to tell. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tips 1) Do not test your roommates. If you do not know for sure that your roommates are cool with you smoking then don't assume they won't call the RAs on duty. I have actually gotten calls from people telling on their roommates. And it's not just socially awkward or weird people, people do get sick of living with each other and start telling on each other. 2) DO NOT jump off the balcony and attempt to run away. The fake police officers keep someone outside of the building in case someone does jump off. Believe it or not this will actually get you in more trouble than possession of weed or alcohol. They will chase you down and handcuff you. You want to avoid that embarrassment because people will come out onto their balconies and watch the ordeal.
Jumping off a balcony? I think id remember- oh wait. I have done that, was at a party and was hanging with the people smoking out on the balcony and a drunk person inside screamed "COPS MAN ITS THE FUCKING COPS RUN!" So there were like 7 of us, we each took turns jumping off a second story balcony and we helped each other walk since a couple of us had sprained our ankles but we got away, it was on like soft grass and it wasn't a true two story building, but yeah.
I think you need to add a big bold disclaimer because a lot of this doesn't apply to and is inaccurate for the school I went to. Your school seems a lot more lax about weed than the ones I know, but generally I wouldn't recommend smoking in a dormitory
Nothing happens if they catch you with weed? Maybe at your college, where my buddy goes he was made to withdraw from the college because his RA found a gram in his apartment
Everyone knows this stuff dude. And the times you guys do rounds are only useful for your school It's stupid to smoke in a dorm. /thread
[quote name='"KOd3Gr33n"'] What state was his college in? In California that would not go down. Parents would fight that.[/quote] Virginia
Cool you did this, but as someone said, there should be a big disclaimer that you're an RA of a specific university and the majority of schools aren't as lenient. For example, at my school, you would probably be thrown out of the dorms for any weed-related incident. My roommate was, and I got a room to myself for a whole semester. Sure, schools want your money, but they also may have limited housing. We also used the bathrooms to smoke weed in because our fans weren't connected to other rooms, because if you run a hot shower (with the water hitting the ground) and pour some shampoo on the shower floor at the point of contact, the smell is completely covered. I also got out of trouble by not having my school ID on me many times (smoking a blunt in the enclosed dormitory courtyard, spring fling, frat shutdowns, etc.).
This is definitely not general...my RAs don't do rounds then, either. Only at 10pm and 12am, usually. And everyday, not just weekends. I'm not sure what they do if you get caught...I haven't read the policies in a while. I know they call campus police (which also happen to be state cops), so you'll probably get a visit and maybe a ticket. Then housing most likely meets with you to see if you can stay or if they should kick you out. The RAs are obligated to call when they smell something, but I can guarantee you on my floor, no one says shit when other kids do it. I smell it every day in the halls, but no one has ever called the cops. It all depends on the RA, in my experience.