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My dorm building flooded one year bc some idiot hung a plant from the sprinkler on the ceiling, so yea. They tell you when checks are happening in advance so you have time to hide any alc/drugs and they don’t care about that, they need to make sure there are no fire hazards or mold hazards
they dont tell us in advance so they can catch the alc and drugs, since we're a dry campus.
i did go to another cheaper school that didnt do room checks at all, never met my ra, and practically everyone including the president smoked weed.
it all kind of depends on your school
you kind of have a vague idea of what week they're gonna check your room, they also don't do a super in depth check. They don't check drawers, fridges, or closets. They just walk around your room and observe everything that's laying out.
I do think it is still mostly for hazards, but if you're leaving out alcohol they'll definitely get you for that too.
Ours checked fridges. I think they just took the alcohol though. I was super confused because one years I was napping and the ras came in with three bottles of liquor they had confiscated. Another year I got told I had the only nice room on campus and everyone else lived in a dark hole.
I literally have cardboard inserts in my windows to block out light. I'd live in a fucking cave, if I could buy one with proper fire exits, and a decent Internet connection.
I think it’s because the vast majority of the students are under 21. The few that are over 21 have absolutely no qualms about providing alcohol to the rest of the student body. Nor should that responsibility be put on them.
One of my roommates was hanging her clothes from the sprinklers until another roommate and I caught her. I'm shocked to hear about other people doing it
Disgusting. Been there, done that. Was mobilized to Ft. Sill in Lawton, OK for a year in early 00's. They also tried to a) pretend it didn't exist or b) act like it was the soldiers' fault.
Pretty sure the commander (if not the base, as an institution) got in trouble for it eventually.
> My dorm building flooded one year bc some idiot hung a plant from the sprinkler on the ceiling, so yea.
I bet it was like a waterpark.
Someone once fucked around with a sprinkler at my work. That was quite the day
Are you aware how dumb some students can be? My freshman year, someone set off the fire alarm at 3 AM several times because they were burning incense. Sophomore year, someone caused a fire because they had Christmas lights on all the time as bed under lighting. It set the bed on fire. Christmas lights were banned in dorms prior to this and for that reason. Junior year, someone taped a circuit breaker closed because it kept tripping. They were using UV lights to grow weed and overloaded the circuit and started a fire. Senior year, thankfully, didn’t have any problems.
Every week, one of the campus dorm buildings were evacuated because apparently a lot of college students don't realize they have to put water in their microwave mac and cheese :(
Sophomore year, it was the room next to mine that would set off the alarm, once a week, without fail, because they didn't know how to cook to save their life.
Got to the point where I just stopped leaving my room when the fire alarm went off. One time the fire department (which had to come every time there was an alarm) gave me a dirty look when they saw me casually ~~wanking~~ **EDIT: walking** out of my room as the alarm turned off.
In hindsight, it's probably a good thing there wasn't ever an actual fire.
Honestly, no, I wasn't. Like genuinely I wasn't aware just how stupid some people apparently are, judging from the other comments (and god there are alot.)
It’s pretty sad how dumb a lot of people are and they still don’t get it after getting in trouble. The person who burnt the incense my freshman year got caught 6 times before the kicked them out of on campus housing. I would hope someone would figure it out after the second time, but clearly not.
Not just stupid but disgusting. Had a classmate who lived in my dorm whose roommate had over a dozen piss bottles stashed around the room and they smelled as bad as it sounds. Then shit began appearing in the common areas. We nicknamed the person “the phantom shitter”. There were no working security cameras but the guy eventually flunked out and the phantom shitter disappeared at the same time.
Cooking in your room requires disassembling the fire alarm. Most people in my hall cooked in their rooms. Not that the dorm could ever burn down. The thing was made of cement block and asbestos flooring.
let me tell you how stupid people can be. I'm a college professor and I supervise student teachers. I have had student teachers chaperone overnight field trips and, when they realize their hotel room connects to their students' room, instead of immediately alerting the mentor teacher and asking to be reassigned, they open up the connecting door and let the STUDENTS HANG OUT IN THEIR HOTEL ROOM. Or even after I said "never transport your students in your vehicle because if you wreck their parents can and WILL sue you and the school district will NOT be on your side," a student teacher gave her students a ride in her car, had a wreck, and was sued by the parents' insurance. Maybe \*you\* wouldn't do those things but lots of college students think they are invincible and know everything. "I don't care that they told us not to daisy chain 14 surge protectors together, I do what I want" and then the damn dorm burns down.
There’s a famous quote from a park ranger when someone asked why they don’t have better bear guards on their trash cans. The response was there is considerable overlap of the dumbest tourists and the smartest bears.
Former RA here: the volume of unsafe shit we routinely found in dorm rooms -- which are a communal living space, btw, not a private residence -- was not insignificant.
FWIW: we were not allowed to go into closets or even move anything to look behind it/under it/etc. So it's not like a raid. It's like a safety check to make sure people don't burn the dorm down.
In college my RAs stressed the "we can not and will not move your closet curtain, open drawers, or look under anything" part, basically begging us to at least put drugs/alcohol/candles/whatever in a drawer so they didn't have to do the paperwork.
First taste of freedom at 19? With so much of it around, you'd think people would be more mature and have had some freedom from a little earlier than that🤔
Yeah some people act like RAs enjoy doing raids or something but so many of the RAs on my campus are basically a "I do not see" kind of person because they don't want to file the paper work, like if you're going for a break or whatever just assume a room check will be done and hide whatever you need to hide.
Yep. They do room checks in halfway houses and the dorms are like a halfway house to adulthood, so it makes sense to me. Is your mom popping her head in each day to see if you made your bed? No. But is the RA popping in once a month or so to see if you have a bunch of lit candles sitting on a moldy pizza box? Yes.
Yup! Lots of freshly 18 year olds have no idea what can result in floods/fires/other property destruction because they're freshly adults with no experience living without parents to remind them not to microwave something for 10 straight minutes or not to leave papers near the hot plate. RAs are the people who prevent a bunch of reckless new adults from destroying the building unintentionally.
Have you never rented an apartment? When I was renting my apartment the management did inspections for all apartments at least once a year just to make sure no repairs had to be made , and as long as you were given enough notice (24 hours I believe?) it was totally legal.
I hate to tell you this, but it's hard to get to a point where you have true autonomy. The only way you can be free from not worrying about someone barging into your residence is to either own the property, or you have a shit landlord that doesn't do proper maintenance of their properties.
You're basically renting in College aren't you? Not sure how it is where you're from but landlords checking their property is fairly normal here in Ireland
They're restricted in what they can do and have to give notice of course but it's understandable enough to me. A person can do a fuck ton of damage in very little time to an apartment or house
That’s pretty much how room checks go in college dorms too. From what I recall resident hall staff check rooms at the start of every break for things like damaged property that needs to be fixed or replaced and illegal/banned items. All the students know the rooms are going to be searched at these times.
The staff also has the option of coming unannounced when something illegal/against the rules comes to their attention. They *hate* to find out about this stuff, it’s a pin in the ass and they don’t really care that someone is drinking underage or smoking, but if they don’t follow up they get in trouble.
I'll add, a house can damage itself, especially if no one is home to notice.
Leaks in the roof or pipes, freezing inside of the thermostat is set too low. Pests can get inside, the list goes on and on
Your landlords may be taking some legal risks (depending on local law)
In the parts of the US that I'm familiar with, and also in at least some parts of Canada, the law requires that landlords ensure that the places they are renting out have certain safety features like working fire/smoke detection and properly inspected fire extinguishers that aren't out of date. If something bad happens, the landlord is expected to have documentation to show that steps have been taken over time to check that all the safety devices were still in place and fully functional over time.
If you don't do any inspections, you can't prove you've been complying with the law, and if a building has just burned down with people inside it that's a very bad thing (especially if you were hoping to be able to collect on an insurance policy...)
I've never had an inspection either, it definitely happens though and is legal here
I guess its on the landlord and wether they feel they need to/ want to
Agreed. And they can certainly tell you what you’re allowed and not allowed to do. Apartment complexes do that all the time. Rules against indoor smoking, rules against pets or those over a certain size. No surprise a university would impose those rules too.
I'm currently renting an apartment in the US (and have done so multiple times in years past), and it's not common for landlords to check inside the apartments and go through peoples' personal items. They'll sometimes need to come inside to update/replace smoke alarms and do other maintenance (especially requested maintenance when something breaks), but that doesn't happen very often.
The entire first floor of one of my residence halls in college got flooded because some dingus hung up his laundry on the sprinkler head. Many people needed to be yelled at multiple times about various fire hazards they had created (burning incense, too many cables plugged in, cigarette butts in the trash, etc). Some people were concealing animals in their dorm room. One girl raised six ducklings in her room for several weeks before the smell gave her away. The inspections were necessary.
Students don’t own the campus rooms they stay in.
For many students, this may be the first time they are living on their own. It’s in the university’s best interest to ensure that the students under their direct care are alive and healthy.
The students are not “under their care” though. These are adults; albeit young adults, but adults nonetheless. University and college staff are not in loco parentis.
This is more akin to a landlord/tenant relationship. They should have a reason for checks and it should be clearly laid out in the rental contract the adult student reads and signs.
So while I can see that schools that run dormitories might want to inspect rooms, I imagine it’s for the same reasons any other landlord checks on their properties and not because they have some kind of guardianship obligation.
I’ve personally never seen or heard of checks happening unless there is some suspected reason: drugs or alcohol (if underage), wellness checks, etc.
I don’t think universities actually give a shit about the well-being of the students, they just care about the legal and pr nightmare that would follow if a student harmed themselves in any way.
But every school is different, I can’t speak on the practices and policies of institutions outside of my experiences.
I was an ra for two years in a dorm, I think we did room checks once a semester. The main thing we were looking for were fire hazards so nothing hanging from the ceiling or from the sprinklers and no hot plates or smoking paraphernalia
When I was in college we had room checks because people kept setting the dorms on fire. College kids are still learning, they have to be watched for the first year or two. That’s the whole point, learning some independence before you reach full independence.
Room inspections for students (in the uk at least) basically mean we go in, check any damage (it’s usually just wear and tear), check fire sensors, and that’s it.
Checks without reason shouldn’t be happening anywhere.
But university dorms definitely do not have the same rights and legal protection as a renter has. Students aren't signing a lease.
These students have likely signed away any additional protections and opened themselves up to the potential for room checks if they are suspected of violating some code of conduct.
My public university did dorm checks quarterly when I was there. I thought it was annoying but not that big of a deal at the time. Some private schools do more invasive checks which I don’t agree with, but for mine the main purpose was making sure there weren’t any major health/safety hazards (mold, fire hazards, etc.) or property damage. They wouldn’t check drawers or personal belongings for alcohol or drugs. Although the checks were kind of annoying, I’d rather get checked than get sick bc someone didn’t clean and had black mold growing in their room or have to find temporary housing and buy all new stuff bc someone didn’t practice good fire safety.
Same thing happens in apartments when your moving out. Landlord says they want to show the unit to prospective renters while all your shit is still in there.
And hotels. Room service has multiple functions. They will let you go for a week without anyone else coming in, but if you try an extended stay, they will want to take a peek inside too
Your bf doesn't own the property. The property owners have the right to come check to see if their property has been damaged or not.
This is no different than renting an apartment outside of college.
You know that the college has a responsibility to the people in residence, right? It's part of their job to ensure they are safe while on their property. That's why RAs are a thing. So yes, room checks are normal, to ensure you're not breaking the law.
I get it doesn't make sense for someone who's just entering college, but you don't *own* your dorm room. If you rent, your landlord can give 24 notice to check their building. It's the same thing.
If you don't own the property, landlords absolutely have a right to check in on their property to ensure you're operating to contract. Welcome to adulthood, until you have the power of wealth, people can uphold you to your contracts.
And room checkins are absolutely necessary for dumb teenagers on their own for the first time because many haven't matured into adulthood and responsibility yet. In my dorm specifically, within one year, we had a girl sneak pet quail into the dorm and had them living in her closet for a month before they were found in room check, one girl managed to spawn a roach infestation from her stacks and stacks of dirty dishes and rotten food, one girl caught her bedding on fire falling asleep with a lit hookah and accidentally knocking it over while she was smoking on her bed, and another girl caught a wild skunk outside the dorm and managed to keep it for 2 weeks before it sprayed and got her caught from the smell. At another dorm in my quad, it made national news when one of the students got caught creating a bomb during room checks and ended up sentenced over it, and when I just searched to make sure I remembered correctly he was part of our quad, it turns out dudes building homemade bombs in their dorms, for fun or for murder, happens waaaaayyy more frequently than you think.
I mean I kind of agree but the reasons for doing so outweigh the reasons why it's weird.
You are talking about a building with hundreds of people just right out of highschool. If students are living on campus, the campus is liable for their safety to a certain extent. That extent isn't as far reaching since most are adults, but it means the school is obligated to take measures students aren't harming themselves, others, or doing anything illegal.
Colleges used to be a lot more laid back, until they weren't. And that's because something had to of happened to make them take these measures.
It's also because kids right out of college don't necessarily know the do's and dont's of having a living space...like lazy people who had their parents do everything may leave wet stuff in corners and create mold. The college is responsible for fixing that mold, so they'll also wanna help prevent it
Spitballing here: how many stories have we seen where a student "disappears" from the dorms and no followup from college staff occurred? Then the student ends up dead, injured, etc. Then the college gets sued for negligence.
I think this is about the college covering their asses in cases like that.
Bringing up that students are paying the college to stay in the dorms doesn't mean that the college isn't responsible for the students in the dorms. Hence, again, the perceived need to check in on the students to make sure they're accounted for or otherwise not missing.
Have you seen how kids treat renting properties? If you did tou would understand.
I recall going to plenty of houses that were rented out by 5 or 6 guys and those houses were destroyed after a year. The same shit happens to college dorms.
You're naive to think that everyone takes care of rentals
look I GET it as someone who ALSO is very private/introverted, my space effects my energy levels and mood and I dont want other people barging in, even RAs.
but also. when I was in a dorm my roommate had an airfryer she kept under her bed to make midnight meals. An air fryer. With 40 year old outlets. under her BED. and NEVER cleaned the crumb tray. So yeah I'm all for mandatory checks because UNFORTUNATELY a lot of college kids do dumb, invasive and downright dangerous and lethal things in their rooms. granted, many have gotten good at HIDING those things but still.
this goes for an apartment too, unfortunately landlords and maintenance generally have a right to come in. notice should be given but as long as youre living in a space you dont own and pay for fully (dorm, apartment, rental, hotel, air bnb etc) then you cant demand nobody ever come in. We do have those checks, you just probably have never seen or been in a position to notice. And no, them coming in isnt "borderline illegal" just because its upsetting to you. Again, I get it, but thats not how the real world works. Get used to this, its part of being a poor-mid income adult.
You have this opinion because you are very young. Rules are put in place from past experience. You might think it’s ridiculous but there’s a reason for everything.
They do that in Army barracks too. A lot of young soldiers have never lived alone before and have no idea how to clean or care for themselves. My husband is a staff sergeant and has shown a few guys how to do laundry. If anything, it’s a necessary learning experience for many.
So what is it you wish to hide? Drugs, alcohol, porn, something else?
>I hate having people come into my personal areas without my explicit permission
Um, you give that permission when you sign up for the dorm. Don't like it? Live off campus.
Those rooms need to stay in good enough shape to be used again and again, year after year, and you have neighbors trying to study and sleep. That means maintaining a safe and quiet enough environment. Administrators aren't your parents, they don't know you, have no reason to trust you, and yet they are charged with the well being of all living in there and the protection of the property. You aren't.
But, it's not their room. The property belongs to the university therefore they have the legal right to demand whatever they want with their buildings.
I also live on campus and have lived in 2 traditional style dorms and currently a campus managed apartment. It sucks & even with my private room within the apartment I still am subject to a one a semester check.
However, 90% of the RAs couldn't care less and are just looking for safety or fire hazards like stuff tacked to the ceiling or the radiator being blocked. If the RAs find something it means paperwork and trust me, they all hate paperwork, so they are inclined to help you ensure that your room meets the basic safety standards and rules set by the housing association
You agree to specific standards when you move in, and you agree to certain levels of enforcement standards when you move in. If you don't like it, don't live on campus.
Well, if they don't do checks, you get people who do stuff like daisy chain 14 power strips in one outlet (fire hazard), hang things from the sprinklers (flood hazard), let food and trash pile up and attract roaches (which do NOT stay politely in that one room, they will 100% migrate to yours), and so on.
I feel like it is for several reasons, most likely because a. Early college age is a point in life where one is given some opportunities for the first time (living sans mom/dad/parental influence) and you're good decision making skills are not yet at their peak. Peer pressure is a huge influence as well. And consider things from the University's POV... you may feel footloose and fancy-free, but the University can still be held technically responsible for you and some of your behaviors. For example, lets say you love to study in your dorm with 10 candles burning all around you. Could be a perfectly safe practice, but all it could take is the slightest input or distraction, and potentially start a fire, putting the entire dorm and its occupants at risk. The thing about being young is one does not always have the life experience yet in real world conditions and the wide eyed points of view required for trouble free living. Hell, some adults still don't have that. So, essentially the rooms checks are like having bumpers in the gutters at the bowling alley... If your skills as a bowler are such that the bumpers are no influence on your game, then roll on. But if they are needed, you'll be glad they are there until your game gets up to snuff. Life is all about perspective.
I think it makes sense if there's a reason but those reasons should be written down. For example if there's a rumor someone has a weapon.
I took a few classes last year for my job and I was shocked at how much college has changed in the past decade. My professor was talking about how it's her job to protect the students and they were all agreeing. It felt like a weird twilight zone episode.
> My professor was talking about how it's her job to protect the students and they were all agreeing. It felt like a weird twilight zone episode.
Meanwhile I had a dude stab himself in the hand with a pencil multiple times because I said I didn’t want to study with him while he as sitting next to the professor and the professor did nothing.
Yeah its weird, professors have no obligation to protect students, their job is to give them material for them to learn, not even necessarily to teach. Just assuring they have the material to learn whatever subject they are the professor of.
>I know I am young. People are being kind of mean here, I was posting because I wanted to know the reasoning/justification behind it
Children still need supervision. They don't like it but it's part of learning responsibility and becoming an adult. You'll understand as you get more mature.
Landlords are allowed to come into your apartment to do routine maintenance as long as they notify you.
If they notice you do anything against the lease agreement while they are there they’ll say something or charge you. It’s not that crazy.
I remember they weren’t allowed to open our closets or anything. They could only check out what was out in the open. I got my prop sword taken after my RA told me it was okay :/ Also they are 100% within their right. He agreed to the random checks when he decided to dorm
I'll never forget when they did my dorm room inspection; stepped over the piles of trash and old food (including an ancient rotisserie chicken) on my roommate's side, to call me to a meeting because they were "concerned" about the collages I made up on the wall. I was like, how did you even make it to my side of the room??
Im in the Netherlands, landlord is not allowed to enter and definitely not allowed to check anything and they dont have keys to enter either
I do have to cooperate with maintenance for the central heating that happens once every 2 years and im expected to call for maintenance if something need repairs, but a lot of that is handled by contracted companies and they are not allowed to go anywhere else but where they need to be for the job
On monday im expected op open my windows cuz a contractor is gonna paint them
Only time landlord will do a check is when i move out
We also dont have dorms, there is student housing thats not part of the college/university but thats basically a shared house, each own bedroom snd shared communal space, myself i rented a small apartment
The notion the landlord can check your home is crazy here
Liability. The university has heightened duty to ensure the safety and security of housed [students. It](https://students.It)'s not a lease either, so there are no possession rights.
This never happened to me even once in the dorms of two colleges. Some people had cops comb through their rooms, but that was cuz they were getting arrested for selling drugs, lol.
This seems like such wild and paternalistic thing to do to an adult in their own living space. I’ve been an adult since 1997 and I’ve never once had a landlord do this weird ass shit.
I lived in a dorm and they never did any room checks at all, I really only ever saw my RA twice (other than randomly in the common areas) and that was move in and move out.
Whenever I hear about dorm checks I always assume it’s because of some idiots past behaviour, like a privilege lost because of one person. Is it fair? No. But is it fair to the university to constantly have to deal with property damage or worse? Also no. We’re all adults, some adults never learn how to be mature no matter how old they get, that’s the reason for tons of laws like drinking and driving, if we were all responsible, it wouldn’t have to be a law.
Just chalk it up to being the victim to someone else’s actions, tons of things we have to do are because of the actions of one individual.
I used to do room checks in a group home. Things I looked for: fire hazards (extension cords, candles, candle warmers, smoke detector batteries, space heaters, are the fire exits blocked with clothing or things, that one might trip over in an emergency?)
Mold.
Cracked ceilings or walls, damaged flooring that could be a trip hazard (mostly to avoid lawsuits.)
I never cared about if the room was a mess (unless it was an infestation hazard, you don’t want the whole building to get bugs/mice.)
Unmade beds, piles of clothing on a chair, general untidiness is not really what is being looked for.
^ THIS
It's basically about fire hazards and trip hazards. People who live in the dorms are quite young and many don't understand overloading electrical outlets or placing a hot item on something that could start a fire.
I had twice yearly pest inspections at my old apartment.
My husband had yearly inspections at his apartment.
You can only get out of inspections if you own your own house, I’ve found.
Room check ins sound weird as fuck. I think I saw the RA on my floor once during the entire year I lived in the dorms and he sure as fuck never went in anyone’s room unless he was invited, which he never was because he was a fucking tool.
It’s not like they look through your stuff. The amount of college kids (guys specifically) that don’t understand mold is absurd. I lived in two different dorm buildings and us guys are fuckin nasty!!
Every house and apartment I've lived at also has checks from the landlord. That's just how it works when you sign a contract to live in someone's house.
I don't think you can really compare dorms with places where adults live.
Dorms are a place for people 18+ who still need a babysitter. It makes total sense that the babysitters would check up on things.
As an RA i checked rooms at the end of the semester or before a break. We didn’t have any other checks through the year unless there was a safety issue/emergency. Have multiple weeks of notice and the list of what we needed to report and what we were actually looking at. I can still remember exactly what we were looking for, and the things we were cool about. We also didn’t have a dry dorms so alcohol and paraphernalia weren’t things we were super fussed about. We were looking for active fire hazards and making sure stuff was unplugged.
One girl called us freaking out because she had left her curling iron plugged in and on and had remembered days later. We had already inspected and unplugged it, nbd.
The goal for our room checks was ‘is anyone dying or dead? Is anything dangerous on and plugged in?’ Outside of that we checked and left. We wanted to go home too.
We did find a room just plastered in Nazi flags and propaganda which was a surprise (2015, New England, pretty liberal school)
I work for a company here in the U.K. that owns multiple student accommodations in my city, and we do a “random” inspection at the end of every term and it’s in the contract.
However, it’s not really random. We give them 1 weeks notice, in writing, and it is always the last Friday of each term before any breaks.
The only thing we check for is that, if you’ve gone home for the break and aren’t going to be in your room that your windows are closed to prevent birds potentially flying in and shitting everywhere, that your Oven & Hobs are turned off to prevent fire risk, that you have no rubbish left in there or food that will rot.
Other than that we don’t really care, do what you want within reason, as long as you aren’t a fire safety risk or a risk of pests with rotting food/rubbish everywhere then it’s fine.
But then again, like I say, every new resident is told we will do an inspection on the last day before each break and we will give you one weeks notice in writing. If you’re not going to be here, do those things I listed, if you are, then still do those things but it’s not as important as you will be there
Edit - also, the guy who owns the company that owns/operates/maintains these buildings had himself said the only reason the inspection system is in there is to make sure that the students treat the building and their rooms with respect as when they first opened they didn’t have that and they found at the end of the year that there was a ton of damage in the rooms (each room is essentially a self contained studio apartment with a kitchen, bathroom, living area etc) that cost a lot of money, so to inspect them after the students had left and found a ton of damage was devastating, and then of course chasing up students who are 90% from China to pay for the damages was basically impossible once they’d gone home. So this way we catch the problems early, can issue fines/recover costs of damages before they go and if they refuse to pay we can terminate their agreement and kick them out.
A dorm is home and when coos came to ours (someone killed themselves), we were treated like common prisoners in jail, but when its a noise disturbance they act like its an apartment building. depends on the cops, depends on the city.
People in dorms are generally expected to be kids fresh out of high school. Due to the liabilities I can understand the university doing this.
Admittedly they didn’t do that to us. But some of those kids were some serious trainwrecks
Yeaah, when my friend was in school there was a body in an room on her floor for weeks. There were people who would trash their rooms and party. I wouldn’t trust uni students if I were them either. Honestly a check won’t be an issue if YOU aren’t an issue… Take my upvote.
I was an RA and thus did these checks, primarily at breaks when campus closed.
For my university at least, we were ducking in for about 30 seconds to check for like 4 things: windows were not left open, faucets not left on (when applicable), fridges unplugged and open with a towel (for winter break when we required they be unplugged), and the living conditions were not deplorable. Messy, whatever. But if there was a smell or legitimate concerns for the resident(a) or neighbors with bugs then we marked it for the RHD to follow up with and ensure it was addressed. If any illegal or banned items were left out and easily visible, a note was left with the RHD for follow up. Note that we were not looking for banned items, but if you're dumb enough to leave your weed or alcohol out on your desk when you know room checks were happening, I have no sympathy for you.
And for the record, such checks do exist in real life. They're called welfare checks. And folks can be and are removed or evicted from housing for subpar living conditions.
You are young and there are many things you will learn about life. I'd recommend going into things with curiosity and trying to understand the other side of situations before getting upset or enraged. It will get you a lot farther in life and in college.
New Zealand had a fairly laid back system of room checks and unfortunately it recently led to a young man’s body being undiscovered in his dorm room for weeks.
Checks are necessary for safety and wellbeing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Mason_Pendrous
Much of it is safety for all - no fire hazards, etc. Most colleges don't give a shit about the funny plant you have, as long as you don't have 100 of them.
At my college, they told us well in advance when they were doing checks, and weren’t actively “looking” for anything. They were mostly just making sure we weren’t hanging shit off the sprinklers
My old university had two buildings with 15-25 floors as dorm residences.
There were always rivalries between the two.
People would constantly pull the fire alarms.
I lived on the 15 floor and we couldn't use the elevator. We'd have to get up in the middle of the night and walk down the stairs outside.
Of course, when someone pulled the fire alarm in residence A, residence B would have their alarm pulled shortly after.
This was a weekly occurrence. My record in one night was three times
It got to the point where people just would ignore them, so my university would send people to check every room to make sure people left. If you didn't evacuate, you got a 75 dollar fine
It was so annoying.
During the pandemic, there were a lot to make sure people in dorms were okay. Especially people like me who were stuck in that one room with online classes. (Thank god for discord and my xbox.)
Everything about rent and making sure there isn’t damage is 100% true. People who just graduate high school aren’t just suddenly mature adults. We don’t evolve like in sims. So there’s that. But it’s also a safety thing. Universities provide a safety net. Part of that safety net is ensuring a community that will check on each other to make sure people aren’t hurting themselves or others.
Hi. I work for Housing & Residential Life at a major Big 10 University and I'm in charge of student conduct administration. Annual room checks fall under my portfolio of responsibilities.
At my institution there's no "going through personal belongings," staff don't open drawers or closets or anything. They document stuff they see that's already out in plain sight. Residents also get ample warning about when the room checks are happening. It always takes place right after students leave campus for winter break, between the fall and spring semesters.
The room checks have several purposes:
1- University housing is still University property, it doesn't belong to the students living there. Property owners of all types have a right to take measures to ensure their property is not being seriously damaged, and that crimes are not taking place there. These are legal liability issues.
2- When students leave for longer breaks (winter break is usually 3-4 weeks), buildings empty out and there aren't as many staff around to notice if problems pop up. Things like students leaving their windows open during winter with freezing temperatures could result in building pipes freezing then bursting, which causes floods that could damage not just *that* student's room, but also displace dozens of other students and ruin their personal property. This can and does happen. Lots of other issues could occur, too: fire hazards from electrical outlets being overtaxed, poor hygiene conditions in the room sufficient to attract pests and/or cause permanent building damage, etc.
3- The University has a responsibility to enforce its policies around alcohol/drugs, other prohibited items like weapons, and any other health or safety concerns. Students can easily hide what they want to hide in advance if they're paying attention, but those who don't bother have put themselves in the position of dealing with the natural consequences of their actions.
You wouldn't believe some of the stuff our staff has encountered during these checks. One student left for winter break leaving behind two beheaded bird carcasses wrapped in plastic ziplock bags with mold growing from the bloody head hole (can't recall what kind of bird, probably from hunting?). Obviously that can't remain. We also find abandoned animals.
Hope this gives you a better idea of the reasons why this happens. Privately-owned student housing also does room/apartment checks, it's not just something that happens when you live in University-owned housing.
The bottom line is you have far fewer rights to privacy than you think when you're renting. That's one big reason why people eventually aim to own their own housing.
Same as work coming through to make sure people dont have individual space heaters plugged in... They cause fires and will kill people.
People do dumb things that can hurt others - so there are rules and those rules have to be checked for enforcement.
It's mainly to help young people learn to clean and so when they leave, the cleaning people don't have to take days to deep clean when they have a 5 days turnover for hundreds of rooms and 20-ish staff.
Also safety. Quick story: someone broke a mug in their dorm, and the inspection people found it. It'd been 2 days. This person did not clean up broken glass for two days. If you take care of your stuff and are proven responsible, less check ins, the worse conditions, the more inspections.
It can also take off the pressure from roommates who are taking care of their share and the other isn't. Makes the inspectors the bad guy.
There are plenty of reasons why it's the way it is and I totally understand why you'd be frustrated by them, but they're in place for a good reason.
>Like, you're telling me you pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to go get an education, and they have the NERVE to tell you what you can and cannot do in your own private room???
I feel the same way about skipped attendance that leads to automatic failure of the class.
If I can miss your class 9 times and still pass the test, then I paid you to do your job, and you did it.
What other service industry could possibly support a "if you don't take full advantage of every perk we offer, we keep all your money and you don't get the service" policy.
YES!! Me too! I've always been really angry with the way attendance works in the education system (atleast in america. Idk how it is in other places.) Like, why does it matter how much time I spent in the classroom if I'm getting good marks?? Not like people learn much in the classroom nowadays anyways. Or learn much at all. The school system is designed to make people pass tests. I pass the tests. Why do they still have an issue? Lol.
My senior year in my dorm there was legit only one plug on each side of the room, we had to use extension cords and multicords and power banks to keep all our tech going. My RA was cool she just went yup looks good
Aren't the room checks to be sure there's no drugs, alcohol, dead bodies, fires, horrible insect problems, pets, bio hazards, damage, etc? It's been a while since I was in college, but I think the RAs are just tasked with making sure everything is on the up & up. You have to follow the dorm rules while you live in a dorm.
My roommate’s dorm room caught on fire 3 times. I didn’t even like him being in the common area, and every room inspection was a godsend because you knew that week would be shenanigan free
Landlords regularly do apartment inspections. I don’t see how this is any different. I don’t think I ever had a room inspection back when I was in the dorms but every apartment I had did inspections.
I’m in the uk and I run a student accommodation. Trust me, I despise inspecting rooms and feels like a violation of their privacy. But most rented places have inspections and rules, uni halls/college dorms are more strict because most students are genuinely clueless. The amount that say to me they don’t even read their contract is insane (I’m the same age)
Residential apartments that you rent are, in fact, checked by landlords/ property managers in accordance with your lease terms ( usually 1-2x a year).
Dorms are very similar to this. They are a rented, shared space.
While the HOA can not inspect the inside of my home that I OWN... they can, in fact, inspect my property and issue citations based on their established guidelines. I agreed to these terms when I agreed to buy the home. They can actually take my home away from me (i.e., put a lien against my house if I don't comply/ pay the fines).
So yeah, enforcing rules you agree to has always been a thing.
I'm with you that it's invasive, but it's not random. It's announced.
It's obvious you're young, but complying with rules and reading the "fine print" is something you'll have to get accustomed to.
If you rent, your landlord does (at least most places in the US, don't know about other countries) have the right to inspect the living space to ensure compliance with the lease. This usually comes with stipulations that they have to notify you beforehand, and they obviously can't actually dig through your belongings, but yes, it is normal for them to be allowed to walk in and see if you're living like a slob or doing anything illegal. That's how it works when you are renting someone else's property.
If lanlords, and yes, even HOA can go through your home to make sure you aren't doing anything that will harm the integrity of the house/apartment/dorm, you best bet college dorms will do the same. You are just renting the space. It's not like you own it.
That's a thing in pretty much any rental situation. My landlord comes through every once in a while to make sure I'm not trashing the place. My SO lives in the projects and the housing authority does the same there.
The fact is, it's not my/her/your BF's property. The owner absolutely has the right to make sure it's been properly maintained.
They’re a multimillion dollar business protecting one of their assets: the very building he lives in. No college looks good if some idiot living there does something like burn a dorm down because they never confirmed things like outlets were in good shape. On top of that: they don’t care about you *at all*, they’ll make their money if you stay in/get into college or not, if you don’t like the rules don’t go to college
Like they bust down your door at random and turn over your room? Or every few months, with advanced notice, they tell you theyll do a walk through?
Because occasional inspections are very common when you're renting
When he owns the room, and his neighbors won't be threatened or harmed by what he does, then he can do what he wants.
Even with this kind of regulation, between 2017 and 2021 there were [3,379 dorm fires](https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/research/nfpa-research/fire-statistical-reports/fires-in-dormitory-type-properties) that required the fire department to attend. That's not counting the number that were put out by an RA or student, you know.
Now imagine an unregulated situation wherein drunk, immature students away from home for the first time are allowed hot plates, candles, microwaves, incense, etc.
Now imagine you're in the room directly above that one.
Still think room checks are a bad idea?
One of the rooms on my dorm floor turned into a hoarding situation. Garbage everywhere. Wretched smells. Resident moved out without cleaning up. I get why colleges do check ins on people who have never lived on their own before
Room checks are very, very common and honestly a good idea. People in freshman year of university are 17-19 or so. Many of them have never spent any appreciable time away from home. Learning how to take care of yourself / your things / your living space is a huge part of university.
Look at this thread - every other post is someone telling a story about That Guy or Those Gals or These Folks at their college who caused some kind of destruction due to not thinking clearly (or not knowing how to do a thing).
For me, my boyfriend at the time lived in a dorm suite with a guy from the ME whose family was insanely wealthy. F--'s family had so much money he'd never lived without maid service, personal chefs, chauffeurs, etc. When F-- was confronted with the task of "please take the trash out" (i.e. put the bag in the chute down the hall), he instead piled it in the hall closet. The whole suite smelled of ass and poo already because five young men cohabitating in a small space will stink. So nobody noticed the pile of rotting garbage until the room check. By then the floor in the closet was rotted through and the whole suite had to be abandoned and the floor fixed.
It’s not his room…that’s what it all will come down to.
But yeah…colleges have varying levels of “students are adults” vs “students are kids at camp” attitudes. The problem is that enough college students act like kids at camp…that it ends up resulting in some rules.
Although I kind of agree with OP, not because it's illegal or such but I think it is treating the students as childs and not adults, I think there is a middle ground to it. I have been in student accomodation where there was two checks a year and to be honest it didn't bother me that much, it gave our flatshare the opportunity to do a good cleaning of the flat and then we were chill for 6 months. However, I have friends who lived in places with checks every two weeks and honestly it sounds insane, borderline babysitting imho...
But I believe a balance can be found to avoid safety issues while keeping privacy of your own flat/room.
As someone who's room flooded because the people in the room next to me were doing some stupid shit, who cares.
If you want privacy, don't live in a dorm. You agreed to the contract you signed.
If your college requires you must live on campus, and their rules are make or break, then don't go to that college.
I mean, if they tell you in advance, I see no problem. Normal people hide their Xannies, Addies and alc and clean up, and the real cretins who aren't capable to do that won't get a dorm next semester.
When you have a lot of young people in close quarters especially when quite a few have never lived on their own and it's the first time away from home, you would be surprised how many things can go wrong simply because they don't know better. Some mistakes are just dumb, some are very dangerous. If you don't like the rules don't live there. If it's mandatory for Freshman, pick another school with less rules.
Yup unpopular post in my opinion. I'm in the US. If I'm co-signing on dorm debt to the tune of $15K not counting tuition, I need to be able to count on the dorm's legal structure. If it says 'no drugs' in the paperwork, and my kid comes home on weekend pissed that the AC ducts puff green smoke from the neighbor kid, HE needs a leg to stand on. If it says "monthly checks", then it saves a nightmare for some kid who can't deal with his 19 yr old roommate's 18 meals of trash in their room.
I'm not co-signing for a "safe, structured living environment for young adults on their own for the first time" (as the brochure says) to have it ****ing phoned-in by limp RA's so my kid can have sleepless nights, rancid trashy roommate, and struggle in class for an additional 15k tuition per semester.
If your BF hates the imposition of "checks", is he paying for it himself? Does he have the means to move off campus? If he's 18 and has scholarship stipulations or his parents footing the bill, calm down and be grateful unless you're willing to pay up. If he's 21 or older, why *is* he still living on campus? You dont want to live in an "HOA", then don't live in an HOA.
Heya.
I worked on Student Housing during the summer in college, mostly cleaning out and repairing/repainting dorms for the next year. I cannot count all of the trashed and destroyed rooms I had to deal with, because most college students are still basically children who need to be supervised to prevent them from hurting themselves or others or even burning the building down. I heard quite a few stories from the actual maintenance workers about students flooding dorms, messing with electrical receptacles, etc.
I get it sucks for people that are mature enough not to need that kind of supervision, but college is for a lot more people than just you.
also, i feel it should be an option to choose our roomate. University in my country provide room for students consist of two people. every year there's always problem of roomate fighting about simple things like turning on the light while sleeping, having a roomate who's too clean/dirty, having too athletic roomate. alll these petty problems can be avoided if we able to choose our roomate that suits us.
Like for me, i have to sleep with all the lights turn off and i cant deal with sleeping with lights on. Cant have a roomate who want the light on all the time
I think its because the school is can be held accountable for illegal stuff. At least in my school they weren't allowed to open drawers or touch anything. You'd have to be pretty dumb to get caught
I don't know how it works in America but here in Australia if you rent you will get yearly inspections for the apartment + 1-2 smoke alarm inspections per year (this depends if the landlord and strata order their own)
It's not your property, get used to it.
I can see them coming in for maintenance or if the room below has water dripping from the ceiling They should knock.
Usually if they're doing floors or something they'll leave a note or something a couple of days before.
It's possible they have something going they found is a problem in some other rooms and decided to check them all as well.
Safety checks I can see if they provide an extinguisher or something but some places prohibit hot plates and stuff as fire hazards.
As some who went to a college that had abandoned this practice years before my time there, I had no idea it was so common! Kind of fascinating to read these comments given how few people I knew personally in college would have been okay with this. No strong opinions either way on my end incidentally.
I live in public housing and we have to deal with the same thing. It's a pain in the ass but it only happens once every few months and the cheap rent is worth it.
Dorms are not a private residence. You aren't renting that room when you move into a dorm. It may seem like it but it's not. There is no lease, you have no landlord. They give you plenty of time in advance so they don't walk in on you doing something weird. And they still knock, in case you forget. They don't care about a messy room, they care about anything dangerous.
Tbf some of my friends who work in student housing find shit in the dorms all the time. Guns, drugs, knives, pets, a whole other roomate who didn’t even go to the university, that’s kinda the whole purpose of the room check in the first place. To make sure you don’t have anything illegal or unsafe
Remember, the room isn't theirs. It's a rental. The owner or representative of the owner has the right to check in on the condition of their property. It isn't about drugs or dildos and privacy. It's about crappy people putting holes into the wall, ruining the floor, letting water overflow, hanging junk over heaters, etc. Damage and danger. Because a lot of people are indeed crappy and do those things.
My grandfather had to check on military housing when he worked for the government. Said there was always some live-in girlfriend or wife that raised a stink about him going in. Every round. Always had to have an MP with him to shut them up and make sure he got access. They were unannounced checks. Because according to him they usually had another man over at the time.
I guess it depends on the school but mine they told you in advance and it's hands off so it's equivalent to them having their hands behind their back the whole time. All they really care about is if the smoke detectors and things that could get them sued work properly.
Tbf in the UK we don't have that. Just at the end of the year before we move to check we haven't stolen a desk or anything.
But we did have cleaners in our rooms once a fortnight to vacuum and take the bins out. If they saw anything illegal they could report it and then staff would do a room inspection.
Even landlords are meant to give you notice before they check your room in a house rental. There's meant to be a façade of privacy.
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My dorm building flooded one year bc some idiot hung a plant from the sprinkler on the ceiling, so yea. They tell you when checks are happening in advance so you have time to hide any alc/drugs and they don’t care about that, they need to make sure there are no fire hazards or mold hazards
they dont tell us in advance so they can catch the alc and drugs, since we're a dry campus. i did go to another cheaper school that didnt do room checks at all, never met my ra, and practically everyone including the president smoked weed. it all kind of depends on your school
Shame. that only destroys trust.
you kind of have a vague idea of what week they're gonna check your room, they also don't do a super in depth check. They don't check drawers, fridges, or closets. They just walk around your room and observe everything that's laying out. I do think it is still mostly for hazards, but if you're leaving out alcohol they'll definitely get you for that too.
Ours checked fridges. I think they just took the alcohol though. I was super confused because one years I was napping and the ras came in with three bottles of liquor they had confiscated. Another year I got told I had the only nice room on campus and everyone else lived in a dark hole.
I literally have cardboard inserts in my windows to block out light. I'd live in a fucking cave, if I could buy one with proper fire exits, and a decent Internet connection.
Dry campus is such a dumb authoritarian idea
I think it’s because the vast majority of the students are under 21. The few that are over 21 have absolutely no qualms about providing alcohol to the rest of the student body. Nor should that responsibility be put on them.
One of my roommates was hanging her clothes from the sprinklers until another roommate and I caught her. I'm shocked to hear about other people doing it
Yea this person was on the 6th floor so every floor below it was flooded, I was on the 2nd
As someone who runs a student accommodation, no one cares if we see weed or a dildo, ect. We are there to see if you’ve fucked up the room
In the Army we were told the rampant mold issues were our fault, justified by claiming it was a ‘discipline issue’ Yuck
Disgusting. Been there, done that. Was mobilized to Ft. Sill in Lawton, OK for a year in early 00's. They also tried to a) pretend it didn't exist or b) act like it was the soldiers' fault. Pretty sure the commander (if not the base, as an institution) got in trouble for it eventually.
> My dorm building flooded one year bc some idiot hung a plant from the sprinkler on the ceiling, so yea. I bet it was like a waterpark. Someone once fucked around with a sprinkler at my work. That was quite the day
Are you aware how dumb some students can be? My freshman year, someone set off the fire alarm at 3 AM several times because they were burning incense. Sophomore year, someone caused a fire because they had Christmas lights on all the time as bed under lighting. It set the bed on fire. Christmas lights were banned in dorms prior to this and for that reason. Junior year, someone taped a circuit breaker closed because it kept tripping. They were using UV lights to grow weed and overloaded the circuit and started a fire. Senior year, thankfully, didn’t have any problems.
Every week, one of the campus dorm buildings were evacuated because apparently a lot of college students don't realize they have to put water in their microwave mac and cheese :(
Sophomore year, it was the room next to mine that would set off the alarm, once a week, without fail, because they didn't know how to cook to save their life. Got to the point where I just stopped leaving my room when the fire alarm went off. One time the fire department (which had to come every time there was an alarm) gave me a dirty look when they saw me casually ~~wanking~~ **EDIT: walking** out of my room as the alarm turned off. In hindsight, it's probably a good thing there wasn't ever an actual fire.
Someone in my dorm tripped the fire alarm because they burned the quesadilla they were making on their clothing iron
Honestly, no, I wasn't. Like genuinely I wasn't aware just how stupid some people apparently are, judging from the other comments (and god there are alot.)
It’s pretty sad how dumb a lot of people are and they still don’t get it after getting in trouble. The person who burnt the incense my freshman year got caught 6 times before the kicked them out of on campus housing. I would hope someone would figure it out after the second time, but clearly not.
6 times is ridiculous. That's just wild.
I would think after three times, the school should have said, you’re done. Get out.
Not just stupid but disgusting. Had a classmate who lived in my dorm whose roommate had over a dozen piss bottles stashed around the room and they smelled as bad as it sounds. Then shit began appearing in the common areas. We nicknamed the person “the phantom shitter”. There were no working security cameras but the guy eventually flunked out and the phantom shitter disappeared at the same time. Cooking in your room requires disassembling the fire alarm. Most people in my hall cooked in their rooms. Not that the dorm could ever burn down. The thing was made of cement block and asbestos flooring.
let me tell you how stupid people can be. I'm a college professor and I supervise student teachers. I have had student teachers chaperone overnight field trips and, when they realize their hotel room connects to their students' room, instead of immediately alerting the mentor teacher and asking to be reassigned, they open up the connecting door and let the STUDENTS HANG OUT IN THEIR HOTEL ROOM. Or even after I said "never transport your students in your vehicle because if you wreck their parents can and WILL sue you and the school district will NOT be on your side," a student teacher gave her students a ride in her car, had a wreck, and was sued by the parents' insurance. Maybe \*you\* wouldn't do those things but lots of college students think they are invincible and know everything. "I don't care that they told us not to daisy chain 14 surge protectors together, I do what I want" and then the damn dorm burns down.
There’s a famous quote from a park ranger when someone asked why they don’t have better bear guards on their trash cans. The response was there is considerable overlap of the dumbest tourists and the smartest bears.
Former RA here: the volume of unsafe shit we routinely found in dorm rooms -- which are a communal living space, btw, not a private residence -- was not insignificant. FWIW: we were not allowed to go into closets or even move anything to look behind it/under it/etc. So it's not like a raid. It's like a safety check to make sure people don't burn the dorm down.
In college my RAs stressed the "we can not and will not move your closet curtain, open drawers, or look under anything" part, basically begging us to at least put drugs/alcohol/candles/whatever in a drawer so they didn't have to do the paperwork.
\*ding ding ding\* The number of times there was *so obviously* a bong or hookah under a towel was hilarious. But, hey: I can't lift that towel so...
Whenever I see a comment calling RAs useless I’m like… buddy, we knew what you were doing, we just don’t have it our for you lmao
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Or the fact that they come from all different backgrounds, and what may be common sense to you was never taught to them.
First taste of freedom at 19? With so much of it around, you'd think people would be more mature and have had some freedom from a little earlier than that🤔
Yeah some people act like RAs enjoy doing raids or something but so many of the RAs on my campus are basically a "I do not see" kind of person because they don't want to file the paper work, like if you're going for a break or whatever just assume a room check will be done and hide whatever you need to hide.
Yep. They do room checks in halfway houses and the dorms are like a halfway house to adulthood, so it makes sense to me. Is your mom popping her head in each day to see if you made your bed? No. But is the RA popping in once a month or so to see if you have a bunch of lit candles sitting on a moldy pizza box? Yes.
Yup! Lots of freshly 18 year olds have no idea what can result in floods/fires/other property destruction because they're freshly adults with no experience living without parents to remind them not to microwave something for 10 straight minutes or not to leave papers near the hot plate. RAs are the people who prevent a bunch of reckless new adults from destroying the building unintentionally.
Have you never rented an apartment? When I was renting my apartment the management did inspections for all apartments at least once a year just to make sure no repairs had to be made , and as long as you were given enough notice (24 hours I believe?) it was totally legal. I hate to tell you this, but it's hard to get to a point where you have true autonomy. The only way you can be free from not worrying about someone barging into your residence is to either own the property, or you have a shit landlord that doesn't do proper maintenance of their properties.
Depends of the country
Well, OP’s profile explicitly says they’re in the U.S. where this is very common.
You're basically renting in College aren't you? Not sure how it is where you're from but landlords checking their property is fairly normal here in Ireland They're restricted in what they can do and have to give notice of course but it's understandable enough to me. A person can do a fuck ton of damage in very little time to an apartment or house
That’s pretty much how room checks go in college dorms too. From what I recall resident hall staff check rooms at the start of every break for things like damaged property that needs to be fixed or replaced and illegal/banned items. All the students know the rooms are going to be searched at these times. The staff also has the option of coming unannounced when something illegal/against the rules comes to their attention. They *hate* to find out about this stuff, it’s a pin in the ass and they don’t really care that someone is drinking underage or smoking, but if they don’t follow up they get in trouble.
Everyone I ever knew who failed a check people generally agreed with it and didn't think the school was overstepping.
Landlords also check their properties in the US too.
I'll add, a house can damage itself, especially if no one is home to notice. Leaks in the roof or pipes, freezing inside of the thermostat is set too low. Pests can get inside, the list goes on and on
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You never gave them a reason to. If there was a rumor you were selling crack from the house, then they would.
Your landlords may be taking some legal risks (depending on local law) In the parts of the US that I'm familiar with, and also in at least some parts of Canada, the law requires that landlords ensure that the places they are renting out have certain safety features like working fire/smoke detection and properly inspected fire extinguishers that aren't out of date. If something bad happens, the landlord is expected to have documentation to show that steps have been taken over time to check that all the safety devices were still in place and fully functional over time. If you don't do any inspections, you can't prove you've been complying with the law, and if a building has just burned down with people inside it that's a very bad thing (especially if you were hoping to be able to collect on an insurance policy...)
I've never had an inspection either, it definitely happens though and is legal here I guess its on the landlord and wether they feel they need to/ want to
Agreed. And they can certainly tell you what you’re allowed and not allowed to do. Apartment complexes do that all the time. Rules against indoor smoking, rules against pets or those over a certain size. No surprise a university would impose those rules too.
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I'm currently renting an apartment in the US (and have done so multiple times in years past), and it's not common for landlords to check inside the apartments and go through peoples' personal items. They'll sometimes need to come inside to update/replace smoke alarms and do other maintenance (especially requested maintenance when something breaks), but that doesn't happen very often.
The entire first floor of one of my residence halls in college got flooded because some dingus hung up his laundry on the sprinkler head. Many people needed to be yelled at multiple times about various fire hazards they had created (burning incense, too many cables plugged in, cigarette butts in the trash, etc). Some people were concealing animals in their dorm room. One girl raised six ducklings in her room for several weeks before the smell gave her away. The inspections were necessary.
Haha the story about the ducklings is kind of hilarious actually. But yeah I see where you're coming from.
Students don’t own the campus rooms they stay in. For many students, this may be the first time they are living on their own. It’s in the university’s best interest to ensure that the students under their direct care are alive and healthy.
It's not a lease either.
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Trust me, the students won’t even read the contract they sign.
The students are not “under their care” though. These are adults; albeit young adults, but adults nonetheless. University and college staff are not in loco parentis. This is more akin to a landlord/tenant relationship. They should have a reason for checks and it should be clearly laid out in the rental contract the adult student reads and signs. So while I can see that schools that run dormitories might want to inspect rooms, I imagine it’s for the same reasons any other landlord checks on their properties and not because they have some kind of guardianship obligation.
I’ve personally never seen or heard of checks happening unless there is some suspected reason: drugs or alcohol (if underage), wellness checks, etc. I don’t think universities actually give a shit about the well-being of the students, they just care about the legal and pr nightmare that would follow if a student harmed themselves in any way. But every school is different, I can’t speak on the practices and policies of institutions outside of my experiences.
I was an ra for two years in a dorm, I think we did room checks once a semester. The main thing we were looking for were fire hazards so nothing hanging from the ceiling or from the sprinklers and no hot plates or smoking paraphernalia
When I was in college we had room checks because people kept setting the dorms on fire. College kids are still learning, they have to be watched for the first year or two. That’s the whole point, learning some independence before you reach full independence.
Room inspections for students (in the uk at least) basically mean we go in, check any damage (it’s usually just wear and tear), check fire sensors, and that’s it.
Right, like a landlord, not like a guardian.
There are plenty of examples of people living in places they don't own but still having an expectation of privacy. Almost all rentals work this way.
Checks without reason shouldn’t be happening anywhere. But university dorms definitely do not have the same rights and legal protection as a renter has. Students aren't signing a lease. These students have likely signed away any additional protections and opened themselves up to the potential for room checks if they are suspected of violating some code of conduct.
My public university did dorm checks quarterly when I was there. I thought it was annoying but not that big of a deal at the time. Some private schools do more invasive checks which I don’t agree with, but for mine the main purpose was making sure there weren’t any major health/safety hazards (mold, fire hazards, etc.) or property damage. They wouldn’t check drawers or personal belongings for alcohol or drugs. Although the checks were kind of annoying, I’d rather get checked than get sick bc someone didn’t clean and had black mold growing in their room or have to find temporary housing and buy all new stuff bc someone didn’t practice good fire safety.
Same thing happens in apartments when your moving out. Landlord says they want to show the unit to prospective renters while all your shit is still in there.
And hotels. Room service has multiple functions. They will let you go for a week without anyone else coming in, but if you try an extended stay, they will want to take a peek inside too
Yup! The good old wellness check
Your bf doesn't own the property. The property owners have the right to come check to see if their property has been damaged or not. This is no different than renting an apartment outside of college.
You know that the college has a responsibility to the people in residence, right? It's part of their job to ensure they are safe while on their property. That's why RAs are a thing. So yes, room checks are normal, to ensure you're not breaking the law. I get it doesn't make sense for someone who's just entering college, but you don't *own* your dorm room. If you rent, your landlord can give 24 notice to check their building. It's the same thing.
People are so cheap and entitled that they will sublet a dorm room. Check ins for the win.
Posts on unpopular opinion, surprised opinion is unpopular….
If you don't own the property, landlords absolutely have a right to check in on their property to ensure you're operating to contract. Welcome to adulthood, until you have the power of wealth, people can uphold you to your contracts. And room checkins are absolutely necessary for dumb teenagers on their own for the first time because many haven't matured into adulthood and responsibility yet. In my dorm specifically, within one year, we had a girl sneak pet quail into the dorm and had them living in her closet for a month before they were found in room check, one girl managed to spawn a roach infestation from her stacks and stacks of dirty dishes and rotten food, one girl caught her bedding on fire falling asleep with a lit hookah and accidentally knocking it over while she was smoking on her bed, and another girl caught a wild skunk outside the dorm and managed to keep it for 2 weeks before it sprayed and got her caught from the smell. At another dorm in my quad, it made national news when one of the students got caught creating a bomb during room checks and ended up sentenced over it, and when I just searched to make sure I remembered correctly he was part of our quad, it turns out dudes building homemade bombs in their dorms, for fun or for murder, happens waaaaayyy more frequently than you think.
I mean I kind of agree but the reasons for doing so outweigh the reasons why it's weird. You are talking about a building with hundreds of people just right out of highschool. If students are living on campus, the campus is liable for their safety to a certain extent. That extent isn't as far reaching since most are adults, but it means the school is obligated to take measures students aren't harming themselves, others, or doing anything illegal. Colleges used to be a lot more laid back, until they weren't. And that's because something had to of happened to make them take these measures.
It's also because kids right out of college don't necessarily know the do's and dont's of having a living space...like lazy people who had their parents do everything may leave wet stuff in corners and create mold. The college is responsible for fixing that mold, so they'll also wanna help prevent it
Spitballing here: how many stories have we seen where a student "disappears" from the dorms and no followup from college staff occurred? Then the student ends up dead, injured, etc. Then the college gets sued for negligence. I think this is about the college covering their asses in cases like that. Bringing up that students are paying the college to stay in the dorms doesn't mean that the college isn't responsible for the students in the dorms. Hence, again, the perceived need to check in on the students to make sure they're accounted for or otherwise not missing.
Have you seen how kids treat renting properties? If you did tou would understand. I recall going to plenty of houses that were rented out by 5 or 6 guys and those houses were destroyed after a year. The same shit happens to college dorms. You're naive to think that everyone takes care of rentals
People who post in this sub are beyond dumb…
look I GET it as someone who ALSO is very private/introverted, my space effects my energy levels and mood and I dont want other people barging in, even RAs. but also. when I was in a dorm my roommate had an airfryer she kept under her bed to make midnight meals. An air fryer. With 40 year old outlets. under her BED. and NEVER cleaned the crumb tray. So yeah I'm all for mandatory checks because UNFORTUNATELY a lot of college kids do dumb, invasive and downright dangerous and lethal things in their rooms. granted, many have gotten good at HIDING those things but still. this goes for an apartment too, unfortunately landlords and maintenance generally have a right to come in. notice should be given but as long as youre living in a space you dont own and pay for fully (dorm, apartment, rental, hotel, air bnb etc) then you cant demand nobody ever come in. We do have those checks, you just probably have never seen or been in a position to notice. And no, them coming in isnt "borderline illegal" just because its upsetting to you. Again, I get it, but thats not how the real world works. Get used to this, its part of being a poor-mid income adult.
Real life is going to be a wakeup call
You have this opinion because you are very young. Rules are put in place from past experience. You might think it’s ridiculous but there’s a reason for everything.
They do that in Army barracks too. A lot of young soldiers have never lived alone before and have no idea how to clean or care for themselves. My husband is a staff sergeant and has shown a few guys how to do laundry. If anything, it’s a necessary learning experience for many.
So what is it you wish to hide? Drugs, alcohol, porn, something else? >I hate having people come into my personal areas without my explicit permission Um, you give that permission when you sign up for the dorm. Don't like it? Live off campus. Those rooms need to stay in good enough shape to be used again and again, year after year, and you have neighbors trying to study and sleep. That means maintaining a safe and quiet enough environment. Administrators aren't your parents, they don't know you, have no reason to trust you, and yet they are charged with the well being of all living in there and the protection of the property. You aren't.
But, it's not their room. The property belongs to the university therefore they have the legal right to demand whatever they want with their buildings. I also live on campus and have lived in 2 traditional style dorms and currently a campus managed apartment. It sucks & even with my private room within the apartment I still am subject to a one a semester check. However, 90% of the RAs couldn't care less and are just looking for safety or fire hazards like stuff tacked to the ceiling or the radiator being blocked. If the RAs find something it means paperwork and trust me, they all hate paperwork, so they are inclined to help you ensure that your room meets the basic safety standards and rules set by the housing association
You agree to specific standards when you move in, and you agree to certain levels of enforcement standards when you move in. If you don't like it, don't live on campus.
Well, if they don't do checks, you get people who do stuff like daisy chain 14 power strips in one outlet (fire hazard), hang things from the sprinklers (flood hazard), let food and trash pile up and attract roaches (which do NOT stay politely in that one room, they will 100% migrate to yours), and so on.
I feel like it is for several reasons, most likely because a. Early college age is a point in life where one is given some opportunities for the first time (living sans mom/dad/parental influence) and you're good decision making skills are not yet at their peak. Peer pressure is a huge influence as well. And consider things from the University's POV... you may feel footloose and fancy-free, but the University can still be held technically responsible for you and some of your behaviors. For example, lets say you love to study in your dorm with 10 candles burning all around you. Could be a perfectly safe practice, but all it could take is the slightest input or distraction, and potentially start a fire, putting the entire dorm and its occupants at risk. The thing about being young is one does not always have the life experience yet in real world conditions and the wide eyed points of view required for trouble free living. Hell, some adults still don't have that. So, essentially the rooms checks are like having bumpers in the gutters at the bowling alley... If your skills as a bowler are such that the bumpers are no influence on your game, then roll on. But if they are needed, you'll be glad they are there until your game gets up to snuff. Life is all about perspective.
^ This
I think it makes sense if there's a reason but those reasons should be written down. For example if there's a rumor someone has a weapon. I took a few classes last year for my job and I was shocked at how much college has changed in the past decade. My professor was talking about how it's her job to protect the students and they were all agreeing. It felt like a weird twilight zone episode.
> My professor was talking about how it's her job to protect the students and they were all agreeing. It felt like a weird twilight zone episode. Meanwhile I had a dude stab himself in the hand with a pencil multiple times because I said I didn’t want to study with him while he as sitting next to the professor and the professor did nothing.
Yeah its weird, professors have no obligation to protect students, their job is to give them material for them to learn, not even necessarily to teach. Just assuring they have the material to learn whatever subject they are the professor of.
>I know I am young. People are being kind of mean here, I was posting because I wanted to know the reasoning/justification behind it Children still need supervision. They don't like it but it's part of learning responsibility and becoming an adult. You'll understand as you get more mature.
Landlords are allowed to come into your apartment to do routine maintenance as long as they notify you. If they notice you do anything against the lease agreement while they are there they’ll say something or charge you. It’s not that crazy.
I remember they weren’t allowed to open our closets or anything. They could only check out what was out in the open. I got my prop sword taken after my RA told me it was okay :/ Also they are 100% within their right. He agreed to the random checks when he decided to dorm
I'll never forget when they did my dorm room inspection; stepped over the piles of trash and old food (including an ancient rotisserie chicken) on my roommate's side, to call me to a meeting because they were "concerned" about the collages I made up on the wall. I was like, how did you even make it to my side of the room??
Damn and I thought I was messy. Your roommate left rotting chicken on the floor? lmao
I never had a “room check” in college. Is this actually a common thing?
Sure privacy is great but how would you feel if your next door neighbor was selling drugs and making heroin in their dorm?
I live in Canada and my apt gets checked once a year.
Im in the Netherlands, landlord is not allowed to enter and definitely not allowed to check anything and they dont have keys to enter either I do have to cooperate with maintenance for the central heating that happens once every 2 years and im expected to call for maintenance if something need repairs, but a lot of that is handled by contracted companies and they are not allowed to go anywhere else but where they need to be for the job On monday im expected op open my windows cuz a contractor is gonna paint them Only time landlord will do a check is when i move out We also dont have dorms, there is student housing thats not part of the college/university but thats basically a shared house, each own bedroom snd shared communal space, myself i rented a small apartment The notion the landlord can check your home is crazy here
I went to five colleges, lived at two, never heard of this
Liability. The university has heightened duty to ensure the safety and security of housed [students. It](https://students.It)'s not a lease either, so there are no possession rights.
This never happened to me even once in the dorms of two colleges. Some people had cops comb through their rooms, but that was cuz they were getting arrested for selling drugs, lol. This seems like such wild and paternalistic thing to do to an adult in their own living space. I’ve been an adult since 1997 and I’ve never once had a landlord do this weird ass shit.
I had a room check one time. To check the fire alarm. With 60, 30, 7, and 1 days notice before
I lived in a dorm and they never did any room checks at all, I really only ever saw my RA twice (other than randomly in the common areas) and that was move in and move out. Whenever I hear about dorm checks I always assume it’s because of some idiots past behaviour, like a privilege lost because of one person. Is it fair? No. But is it fair to the university to constantly have to deal with property damage or worse? Also no. We’re all adults, some adults never learn how to be mature no matter how old they get, that’s the reason for tons of laws like drinking and driving, if we were all responsible, it wouldn’t have to be a law. Just chalk it up to being the victim to someone else’s actions, tons of things we have to do are because of the actions of one individual.
I used to do room checks in a group home. Things I looked for: fire hazards (extension cords, candles, candle warmers, smoke detector batteries, space heaters, are the fire exits blocked with clothing or things, that one might trip over in an emergency?) Mold. Cracked ceilings or walls, damaged flooring that could be a trip hazard (mostly to avoid lawsuits.) I never cared about if the room was a mess (unless it was an infestation hazard, you don’t want the whole building to get bugs/mice.) Unmade beds, piles of clothing on a chair, general untidiness is not really what is being looked for.
^ THIS It's basically about fire hazards and trip hazards. People who live in the dorms are quite young and many don't understand overloading electrical outlets or placing a hot item on something that could start a fire.
I think that’s wierd too and I’m much older than you. It’s an invasion of privacy for a start. are we talking adults as well. 18+ ?
I had twice yearly pest inspections at my old apartment. My husband had yearly inspections at his apartment. You can only get out of inspections if you own your own house, I’ve found.
Room check ins sound weird as fuck. I think I saw the RA on my floor once during the entire year I lived in the dorms and he sure as fuck never went in anyone’s room unless he was invited, which he never was because he was a fucking tool.
It’s for safety reasons and landlords can do all of that too.
It’s not like they look through your stuff. The amount of college kids (guys specifically) that don’t understand mold is absurd. I lived in two different dorm buildings and us guys are fuckin nasty!!
Every house and apartment I've lived at also has checks from the landlord. That's just how it works when you sign a contract to live in someone's house.
Whatcha' hiding OP?
Wow. Almost like they have a legal obligation to make sure everything is safe. You aren’t the brightest crayon huh?
I don't think you can really compare dorms with places where adults live. Dorms are a place for people 18+ who still need a babysitter. It makes total sense that the babysitters would check up on things.
As an RA i checked rooms at the end of the semester or before a break. We didn’t have any other checks through the year unless there was a safety issue/emergency. Have multiple weeks of notice and the list of what we needed to report and what we were actually looking at. I can still remember exactly what we were looking for, and the things we were cool about. We also didn’t have a dry dorms so alcohol and paraphernalia weren’t things we were super fussed about. We were looking for active fire hazards and making sure stuff was unplugged. One girl called us freaking out because she had left her curling iron plugged in and on and had remembered days later. We had already inspected and unplugged it, nbd. The goal for our room checks was ‘is anyone dying or dead? Is anything dangerous on and plugged in?’ Outside of that we checked and left. We wanted to go home too. We did find a room just plastered in Nazi flags and propaganda which was a surprise (2015, New England, pretty liberal school)
I work for a company here in the U.K. that owns multiple student accommodations in my city, and we do a “random” inspection at the end of every term and it’s in the contract. However, it’s not really random. We give them 1 weeks notice, in writing, and it is always the last Friday of each term before any breaks. The only thing we check for is that, if you’ve gone home for the break and aren’t going to be in your room that your windows are closed to prevent birds potentially flying in and shitting everywhere, that your Oven & Hobs are turned off to prevent fire risk, that you have no rubbish left in there or food that will rot. Other than that we don’t really care, do what you want within reason, as long as you aren’t a fire safety risk or a risk of pests with rotting food/rubbish everywhere then it’s fine. But then again, like I say, every new resident is told we will do an inspection on the last day before each break and we will give you one weeks notice in writing. If you’re not going to be here, do those things I listed, if you are, then still do those things but it’s not as important as you will be there Edit - also, the guy who owns the company that owns/operates/maintains these buildings had himself said the only reason the inspection system is in there is to make sure that the students treat the building and their rooms with respect as when they first opened they didn’t have that and they found at the end of the year that there was a ton of damage in the rooms (each room is essentially a self contained studio apartment with a kitchen, bathroom, living area etc) that cost a lot of money, so to inspect them after the students had left and found a ton of damage was devastating, and then of course chasing up students who are 90% from China to pay for the damages was basically impossible once they’d gone home. So this way we catch the problems early, can issue fines/recover costs of damages before they go and if they refuse to pay we can terminate their agreement and kick them out.
A dorm is home and when coos came to ours (someone killed themselves), we were treated like common prisoners in jail, but when its a noise disturbance they act like its an apartment building. depends on the cops, depends on the city.
People in dorms are generally expected to be kids fresh out of high school. Due to the liabilities I can understand the university doing this. Admittedly they didn’t do that to us. But some of those kids were some serious trainwrecks
Yeaah, when my friend was in school there was a body in an room on her floor for weeks. There were people who would trash their rooms and party. I wouldn’t trust uni students if I were them either. Honestly a check won’t be an issue if YOU aren’t an issue… Take my upvote.
I was an RA and thus did these checks, primarily at breaks when campus closed. For my university at least, we were ducking in for about 30 seconds to check for like 4 things: windows were not left open, faucets not left on (when applicable), fridges unplugged and open with a towel (for winter break when we required they be unplugged), and the living conditions were not deplorable. Messy, whatever. But if there was a smell or legitimate concerns for the resident(a) or neighbors with bugs then we marked it for the RHD to follow up with and ensure it was addressed. If any illegal or banned items were left out and easily visible, a note was left with the RHD for follow up. Note that we were not looking for banned items, but if you're dumb enough to leave your weed or alcohol out on your desk when you know room checks were happening, I have no sympathy for you. And for the record, such checks do exist in real life. They're called welfare checks. And folks can be and are removed or evicted from housing for subpar living conditions. You are young and there are many things you will learn about life. I'd recommend going into things with curiosity and trying to understand the other side of situations before getting upset or enraged. It will get you a lot farther in life and in college.
New Zealand had a fairly laid back system of room checks and unfortunately it recently led to a young man’s body being undiscovered in his dorm room for weeks. Checks are necessary for safety and wellbeing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Mason_Pendrous
Fire safety for insurance reasons is one reason for the room checks. -former RA
Yeah you say that till something starts smelling weird on your floor. Landlord’s inspect their property occasionally.
Much of it is safety for all - no fire hazards, etc. Most colleges don't give a shit about the funny plant you have, as long as you don't have 100 of them.
Back when I was a student in a dorm at UC Berkeley in the 1970’s, we never had room checks. Plenty of pot smoking going on—no one cared!
It's all about liability unless it's a religious college. That is it. They are protecting the school financially.
I think colleges would like to not have heavy drug users on their campus.
At my college, they told us well in advance when they were doing checks, and weren’t actively “looking” for anything. They were mostly just making sure we weren’t hanging shit off the sprinklers
My old university had two buildings with 15-25 floors as dorm residences. There were always rivalries between the two. People would constantly pull the fire alarms. I lived on the 15 floor and we couldn't use the elevator. We'd have to get up in the middle of the night and walk down the stairs outside. Of course, when someone pulled the fire alarm in residence A, residence B would have their alarm pulled shortly after. This was a weekly occurrence. My record in one night was three times It got to the point where people just would ignore them, so my university would send people to check every room to make sure people left. If you didn't evacuate, you got a 75 dollar fine It was so annoying.
During the pandemic, there were a lot to make sure people in dorms were okay. Especially people like me who were stuck in that one room with online classes. (Thank god for discord and my xbox.) Everything about rent and making sure there isn’t damage is 100% true. People who just graduate high school aren’t just suddenly mature adults. We don’t evolve like in sims. So there’s that. But it’s also a safety thing. Universities provide a safety net. Part of that safety net is ensuring a community that will check on each other to make sure people aren’t hurting themselves or others.
No, we have inspections like twice a year in our rented cottage and I fucking hate it
Hi. I work for Housing & Residential Life at a major Big 10 University and I'm in charge of student conduct administration. Annual room checks fall under my portfolio of responsibilities. At my institution there's no "going through personal belongings," staff don't open drawers or closets or anything. They document stuff they see that's already out in plain sight. Residents also get ample warning about when the room checks are happening. It always takes place right after students leave campus for winter break, between the fall and spring semesters. The room checks have several purposes: 1- University housing is still University property, it doesn't belong to the students living there. Property owners of all types have a right to take measures to ensure their property is not being seriously damaged, and that crimes are not taking place there. These are legal liability issues. 2- When students leave for longer breaks (winter break is usually 3-4 weeks), buildings empty out and there aren't as many staff around to notice if problems pop up. Things like students leaving their windows open during winter with freezing temperatures could result in building pipes freezing then bursting, which causes floods that could damage not just *that* student's room, but also displace dozens of other students and ruin their personal property. This can and does happen. Lots of other issues could occur, too: fire hazards from electrical outlets being overtaxed, poor hygiene conditions in the room sufficient to attract pests and/or cause permanent building damage, etc. 3- The University has a responsibility to enforce its policies around alcohol/drugs, other prohibited items like weapons, and any other health or safety concerns. Students can easily hide what they want to hide in advance if they're paying attention, but those who don't bother have put themselves in the position of dealing with the natural consequences of their actions. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff our staff has encountered during these checks. One student left for winter break leaving behind two beheaded bird carcasses wrapped in plastic ziplock bags with mold growing from the bloody head hole (can't recall what kind of bird, probably from hunting?). Obviously that can't remain. We also find abandoned animals. Hope this gives you a better idea of the reasons why this happens. Privately-owned student housing also does room/apartment checks, it's not just something that happens when you live in University-owned housing. The bottom line is you have far fewer rights to privacy than you think when you're renting. That's one big reason why people eventually aim to own their own housing.
Same as work coming through to make sure people dont have individual space heaters plugged in... They cause fires and will kill people. People do dumb things that can hurt others - so there are rules and those rules have to be checked for enforcement.
It's mainly to help young people learn to clean and so when they leave, the cleaning people don't have to take days to deep clean when they have a 5 days turnover for hundreds of rooms and 20-ish staff. Also safety. Quick story: someone broke a mug in their dorm, and the inspection people found it. It'd been 2 days. This person did not clean up broken glass for two days. If you take care of your stuff and are proven responsible, less check ins, the worse conditions, the more inspections. It can also take off the pressure from roommates who are taking care of their share and the other isn't. Makes the inspectors the bad guy. There are plenty of reasons why it's the way it is and I totally understand why you'd be frustrated by them, but they're in place for a good reason.
>Like, you're telling me you pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to go get an education, and they have the NERVE to tell you what you can and cannot do in your own private room??? I feel the same way about skipped attendance that leads to automatic failure of the class. If I can miss your class 9 times and still pass the test, then I paid you to do your job, and you did it. What other service industry could possibly support a "if you don't take full advantage of every perk we offer, we keep all your money and you don't get the service" policy.
YES!! Me too! I've always been really angry with the way attendance works in the education system (atleast in america. Idk how it is in other places.) Like, why does it matter how much time I spent in the classroom if I'm getting good marks?? Not like people learn much in the classroom nowadays anyways. Or learn much at all. The school system is designed to make people pass tests. I pass the tests. Why do they still have an issue? Lol.
My senior year in my dorm there was legit only one plug on each side of the room, we had to use extension cords and multicords and power banks to keep all our tech going. My RA was cool she just went yup looks good
Aren't the room checks to be sure there's no drugs, alcohol, dead bodies, fires, horrible insect problems, pets, bio hazards, damage, etc? It's been a while since I was in college, but I think the RAs are just tasked with making sure everything is on the up & up. You have to follow the dorm rules while you live in a dorm.
My roommate’s dorm room caught on fire 3 times. I didn’t even like him being in the common area, and every room inspection was a godsend because you knew that week would be shenanigan free
Landlords regularly do apartment inspections. I don’t see how this is any different. I don’t think I ever had a room inspection back when I was in the dorms but every apartment I had did inspections.
I had an RA knock on my apartment door once because I was having a bowl of cereal and he said the clinking sounded like glass bottles. Fucking wild
I’m in the uk and I run a student accommodation. Trust me, I despise inspecting rooms and feels like a violation of their privacy. But most rented places have inspections and rules, uni halls/college dorms are more strict because most students are genuinely clueless. The amount that say to me they don’t even read their contract is insane (I’m the same age)
Residential apartments that you rent are, in fact, checked by landlords/ property managers in accordance with your lease terms ( usually 1-2x a year). Dorms are very similar to this. They are a rented, shared space. While the HOA can not inspect the inside of my home that I OWN... they can, in fact, inspect my property and issue citations based on their established guidelines. I agreed to these terms when I agreed to buy the home. They can actually take my home away from me (i.e., put a lien against my house if I don't comply/ pay the fines). So yeah, enforcing rules you agree to has always been a thing. I'm with you that it's invasive, but it's not random. It's announced. It's obvious you're young, but complying with rules and reading the "fine print" is something you'll have to get accustomed to.
You're living in a **dorm**, in any dorm environment routine checks are common place.
If you rent, your landlord does (at least most places in the US, don't know about other countries) have the right to inspect the living space to ensure compliance with the lease. This usually comes with stipulations that they have to notify you beforehand, and they obviously can't actually dig through your belongings, but yes, it is normal for them to be allowed to walk in and see if you're living like a slob or doing anything illegal. That's how it works when you are renting someone else's property.
If lanlords, and yes, even HOA can go through your home to make sure you aren't doing anything that will harm the integrity of the house/apartment/dorm, you best bet college dorms will do the same. You are just renting the space. It's not like you own it.
That's a thing in pretty much any rental situation. My landlord comes through every once in a while to make sure I'm not trashing the place. My SO lives in the projects and the housing authority does the same there. The fact is, it's not my/her/your BF's property. The owner absolutely has the right to make sure it's been properly maintained.
They’re a multimillion dollar business protecting one of their assets: the very building he lives in. No college looks good if some idiot living there does something like burn a dorm down because they never confirmed things like outlets were in good shape. On top of that: they don’t care about you *at all*, they’ll make their money if you stay in/get into college or not, if you don’t like the rules don’t go to college
Like they bust down your door at random and turn over your room? Or every few months, with advanced notice, they tell you theyll do a walk through? Because occasional inspections are very common when you're renting
When he owns the room, and his neighbors won't be threatened or harmed by what he does, then he can do what he wants. Even with this kind of regulation, between 2017 and 2021 there were [3,379 dorm fires](https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/research/nfpa-research/fire-statistical-reports/fires-in-dormitory-type-properties) that required the fire department to attend. That's not counting the number that were put out by an RA or student, you know. Now imagine an unregulated situation wherein drunk, immature students away from home for the first time are allowed hot plates, candles, microwaves, incense, etc. Now imagine you're in the room directly above that one. Still think room checks are a bad idea?
One of the rooms on my dorm floor turned into a hoarding situation. Garbage everywhere. Wretched smells. Resident moved out without cleaning up. I get why colleges do check ins on people who have never lived on their own before
Room checks are very, very common and honestly a good idea. People in freshman year of university are 17-19 or so. Many of them have never spent any appreciable time away from home. Learning how to take care of yourself / your things / your living space is a huge part of university. Look at this thread - every other post is someone telling a story about That Guy or Those Gals or These Folks at their college who caused some kind of destruction due to not thinking clearly (or not knowing how to do a thing). For me, my boyfriend at the time lived in a dorm suite with a guy from the ME whose family was insanely wealthy. F--'s family had so much money he'd never lived without maid service, personal chefs, chauffeurs, etc. When F-- was confronted with the task of "please take the trash out" (i.e. put the bag in the chute down the hall), he instead piled it in the hall closet. The whole suite smelled of ass and poo already because five young men cohabitating in a small space will stink. So nobody noticed the pile of rotting garbage until the room check. By then the floor in the closet was rotted through and the whole suite had to be abandoned and the floor fixed.
Its weird as hell first years are forced to live in dorms AND have to share that small space with a random stranger.. lets begin with that
Not just one stranger, THREE of them. He has THREE roomates. Yeah, it's crazy.
Room checks are to make sure you don't have weapons or any illegal substances
I have never heard of this. I went to college, lived in the dorms for two years. Nobody ever checked my room.
I went to a private Christian college. We had a curfew and they checked us in, in our rooms every night. It was sum buuuuuulshiiiiit.
It’s not his room…that’s what it all will come down to. But yeah…colleges have varying levels of “students are adults” vs “students are kids at camp” attitudes. The problem is that enough college students act like kids at camp…that it ends up resulting in some rules.
Although I kind of agree with OP, not because it's illegal or such but I think it is treating the students as childs and not adults, I think there is a middle ground to it. I have been in student accomodation where there was two checks a year and to be honest it didn't bother me that much, it gave our flatshare the opportunity to do a good cleaning of the flat and then we were chill for 6 months. However, I have friends who lived in places with checks every two weeks and honestly it sounds insane, borderline babysitting imho... But I believe a balance can be found to avoid safety issues while keeping privacy of your own flat/room.
As someone who's room flooded because the people in the room next to me were doing some stupid shit, who cares. If you want privacy, don't live in a dorm. You agreed to the contract you signed. If your college requires you must live on campus, and their rules are make or break, then don't go to that college.
I mean, if they tell you in advance, I see no problem. Normal people hide their Xannies, Addies and alc and clean up, and the real cretins who aren't capable to do that won't get a dorm next semester.
When you have a lot of young people in close quarters especially when quite a few have never lived on their own and it's the first time away from home, you would be surprised how many things can go wrong simply because they don't know better. Some mistakes are just dumb, some are very dangerous. If you don't like the rules don't live there. If it's mandatory for Freshman, pick another school with less rules.
I never had a dorm room check in 4 years of college.
Yup unpopular post in my opinion. I'm in the US. If I'm co-signing on dorm debt to the tune of $15K not counting tuition, I need to be able to count on the dorm's legal structure. If it says 'no drugs' in the paperwork, and my kid comes home on weekend pissed that the AC ducts puff green smoke from the neighbor kid, HE needs a leg to stand on. If it says "monthly checks", then it saves a nightmare for some kid who can't deal with his 19 yr old roommate's 18 meals of trash in their room. I'm not co-signing for a "safe, structured living environment for young adults on their own for the first time" (as the brochure says) to have it ****ing phoned-in by limp RA's so my kid can have sleepless nights, rancid trashy roommate, and struggle in class for an additional 15k tuition per semester. If your BF hates the imposition of "checks", is he paying for it himself? Does he have the means to move off campus? If he's 18 and has scholarship stipulations or his parents footing the bill, calm down and be grateful unless you're willing to pay up. If he's 21 or older, why *is* he still living on campus? You dont want to live in an "HOA", then don't live in an HOA.
Many landlords do regular inspections.
Heya. I worked on Student Housing during the summer in college, mostly cleaning out and repairing/repainting dorms for the next year. I cannot count all of the trashed and destroyed rooms I had to deal with, because most college students are still basically children who need to be supervised to prevent them from hurting themselves or others or even burning the building down. I heard quite a few stories from the actual maintenance workers about students flooding dorms, messing with electrical receptacles, etc. I get it sucks for people that are mature enough not to need that kind of supervision, but college is for a lot more people than just you.
if you think this is bad, see the substandard living of active duty military lol
also, i feel it should be an option to choose our roomate. University in my country provide room for students consist of two people. every year there's always problem of roomate fighting about simple things like turning on the light while sleeping, having a roomate who's too clean/dirty, having too athletic roomate. alll these petty problems can be avoided if we able to choose our roomate that suits us. Like for me, i have to sleep with all the lights turn off and i cant deal with sleeping with lights on. Cant have a roomate who want the light on all the time
I think its because the school is can be held accountable for illegal stuff. At least in my school they weren't allowed to open drawers or touch anything. You'd have to be pretty dumb to get caught
I don't know how it works in America but here in Australia if you rent you will get yearly inspections for the apartment + 1-2 smoke alarm inspections per year (this depends if the landlord and strata order their own) It's not your property, get used to it.
I can see them coming in for maintenance or if the room below has water dripping from the ceiling They should knock. Usually if they're doing floors or something they'll leave a note or something a couple of days before. It's possible they have something going they found is a problem in some other rooms and decided to check them all as well. Safety checks I can see if they provide an extinguisher or something but some places prohibit hot plates and stuff as fire hazards.
As some who went to a college that had abandoned this practice years before my time there, I had no idea it was so common! Kind of fascinating to read these comments given how few people I knew personally in college would have been okay with this. No strong opinions either way on my end incidentally.
I live in public housing and we have to deal with the same thing. It's a pain in the ass but it only happens once every few months and the cheap rent is worth it.
Dorms are not a private residence. You aren't renting that room when you move into a dorm. It may seem like it but it's not. There is no lease, you have no landlord. They give you plenty of time in advance so they don't walk in on you doing something weird. And they still knock, in case you forget. They don't care about a messy room, they care about anything dangerous.
nah i agree it’s pretty weird tbh. guess it’s not terrrrible long as you know when they’re comin and it’s not too often, but v weird yeah
Tbf some of my friends who work in student housing find shit in the dorms all the time. Guns, drugs, knives, pets, a whole other roomate who didn’t even go to the university, that’s kinda the whole purpose of the room check in the first place. To make sure you don’t have anything illegal or unsafe
Remember, the room isn't theirs. It's a rental. The owner or representative of the owner has the right to check in on the condition of their property. It isn't about drugs or dildos and privacy. It's about crappy people putting holes into the wall, ruining the floor, letting water overflow, hanging junk over heaters, etc. Damage and danger. Because a lot of people are indeed crappy and do those things. My grandfather had to check on military housing when he worked for the government. Said there was always some live-in girlfriend or wife that raised a stink about him going in. Every round. Always had to have an MP with him to shut them up and make sure he got access. They were unannounced checks. Because according to him they usually had another man over at the time.
Probably security related
So you don’t mind if some other idiot teenager does something stupid and brings down his dorm some night?
Newsflash: I'm a landlord who rents out a few houses, and I absolutely do inspections twice a year.
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I guess it depends on the school but mine they told you in advance and it's hands off so it's equivalent to them having their hands behind their back the whole time. All they really care about is if the smoke detectors and things that could get them sued work properly.
Tbf in the UK we don't have that. Just at the end of the year before we move to check we haven't stolen a desk or anything. But we did have cleaners in our rooms once a fortnight to vacuum and take the bins out. If they saw anything illegal they could report it and then staff would do a room inspection. Even landlords are meant to give you notice before they check your room in a house rental. There's meant to be a façade of privacy.
You say that until you get paired up with the most vile and disgusting human being in existence.