Can I protest a school's protocol?

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morellism

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I am currently attending a university and I have been having problems with my residential adviser. It seems like he only enforces the rules against my roommate and I, and not the other people in our hall. When we try to talk to him or the man in charge of the buildings about the problems we have had with our suit mate they fail to address it. I have 13 different accounts of my roommate and I asking for help and them failing to comply. The RA has called for a mandatory hall meeting, and told us that if we did not go that we would get sent before the conduct board of our school. If we decided not to go to this meeting, in protest, is that within our rights? We feel like we should not abide by his rules if he does not apply the same rules to everybody. Also, is it considered discrimination since he only applies the rules to a small few and lets others get away with breaking the rules?
 
Why not just find an off campus apartment?

If this irritates you that much, complain to a dean of something or the other (student life, residential living, student affairs, some bigshot dean, or ombudsman).

The law takes no notice of this nonsense.

Somewhere on your campus someone is eager to get involved in this madness, find him or her.
 
Since I am a freshman I can not go off campus. I have talked to my RA and the man in charge of the RA's. I still don't understand how this is not discrimination. He only seems to be punishing my roommate and I. Isn't that the definition of discrimination? When you have been denied equitable treatment? Back to the original question, is it within my legal rights to protest a school's protocol?
 
Of course it's discrimination. But it's not ILLEGAL discrimination. At least, not based on what you've posted.

We all discriminate every day. When you choose steak over chicken for dinner, that's discrimination. When you choose to wear the green shirt instead of the blue one, that's discrimination. Most discrimination is absolutely legal.

Without some evidence that your RA is applying the rules solely to you and your roommate BECAUSE OF your inclusion in a characteristic protected by law, it's not illegal discrimination. For example, if he is doing this because you are both Hispanic, that's illegal, because race is protected by law. If he's doing it because you're both freshman, that's not illegal, because what educational class you are in is not protected by law. The burden of proof is, at least initially, on you to show that it's for an illegal reason.

There is no law prohibiting you from protesting a protocol but there is also no law saying the school has to pay any attention to your protest, either.
 
Also; if you protest & don't go to the mandatory hall meeting, your RA could send you before the conduct board of the school if that is one of his "powers" to do so.
 
We live on a freshman hall and there have been incidents of underage drinking and people using drugs, and he failed to write them up. Yet, my roommate has been written up over something very simple before. My roommate does have a disability and needs a little more attention from our RA and he does not help, but instead says that she needs to stop asking him for help. This brings up another question, can a public university search a students room without a warrant if they suspect illegal activities?
 
Check your lease/housing agreement. Because you live on the university's property, they can pretty much make whatever rules they want within reason because you are contractually and voluntarily agreeing to live there and thus follow their rules. It's not like if you live on non-university property. If it states in your lease/housing agreement that the University Police and/or univ. officials are allowed to enter your room at any time without a warrant and you sign the lease and agree to live there, then they can enter without a warrant because by signing that stipulation you are consenting. Generally courts will uphold the lease/housing agreement if the reason was reasonable & vital. (for no reason, sometimes not)

You might consider living off campus next year.
 
Thanks, just wanted to clear up that it was not them entering my room:) The people that live across from were smoking weed and the campus police said they would not go in the room without a warrant.
 
What kind of attention does your roommate need? Is there some reason why that attention has to come from the RA and not anyone else?
 
& do you believe the RA is treating ("punishing") your roommate differently JUST because of her disability - seems you are being treated the same way.

As cbg asked, what kind of attention/help does your roommate need from the RA that she is not getting?

Thanks.
 
I don't think any RA is required to provide care or assistance BEYOND managing the facility.
 
My roommate has schizophrenia (audio) so the noise really gets to her. Were not asking him to take care of her, were just asking for him to enforce courteous hours and quiet hours. These are rules that are suppose to be enforced by the RA.
 
my roommate has schizophrenia (audio) and it is really hard for her to handle the noise. We just need our RA to enforce the rules that the University has put in place about the noise, yet he does not. When she asks him for help he replies with things like "stop texting me." We have gotten in trouble for something being to close to the heater (that we haven't even turned on) yet he lets my suit mate and other get away with smoking weed and underage drinking.
 
She wants to be treated like a normal college student but has told the RA and the man in charge of the RA's about how it is hard for her to handle excess noise. She does try to cancel out their noise by using noise cancelling headphones, but you can still hear them. Then she asks the RA for help and he doesn't do anything
 
She doesn't get to have it both ways. No matter how you slice it, freshman dorms are going to be noisy. If she wants a disability accommodation, she has to acknowledge the disability and ask for one. If she doesn't want to acknowledge the disabilty, her options are limited.

There may be other alternatives rather than just the RA. I don't know what the set up is where you are. Where I went to school, in addition to the RA on each floor there was a live in "housemother" for the whole dorm. If there is such a thing in your dorms, she might try talking to her. Or the dean of student services might have some suggestions.

What I can tell you is that you have no legal recourse, and your roommate has a great many steps to go before she does.
 
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