LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Pets are not allowed to live in on-campus housing, and I broke that rule. But FAU didn’t find out about it because of another set of rules.

Resident assistants (RAs) are essentially leaders of on-campus housing. Their job is to keep you in line but also to protect the allergic and disdainful from others’ misdeeds, like cat owning or pot smoking. They “protect” you through room checks.

You can get out from under housing’s “protection” — but only if you know the rules that housing officials have to follow.

Room checks are typically once a semester. RAs will knock on your front door and merrily let themselves in if no one answers in less than three seconds.

Each of your rooms is thoroughly scanned with probing eyes.

They look around to make sure electrical outlets aren’t overloaded and there’s no drug paraphernalia in sight. They admire your shoes. Then they leave.

And yes, it’s all legal.

According to Jill Eckardt, FAU’s housing director, housing officials “can do anything” when it comes to room checks. That’s not exactly the case.

They have to follow a set of rules, and those rules are what allowed me to keep a hedgehog in my apartment during the fall semester.

I was able to keep my spiky friend, Henry Walter, hidden during room checks because I knew the rules.

RAs don’t look in cabinets or closets with closed doors because they aren’t allowed to.
That’s the key. During the fall room checks, my hedgehog waited like a little ninja in the closet underneath the stairs. I shut the door to the closet and knew he would be safe.
I knew the RAs couldn’t open that door, or any other closed cabinet or drawer. That means that anything in that closet, such as a small animal, would be safely hidden.
But there are other things that RAs can and cannot do. You should know your rights as students who pay to live on campus.

Here are your rights:

1. RAs CAN always enter in case of an emergency.
– Students agree to this when they sign their housing contract at the beginning of the academic year. Clause 15 in the contract states: “The University reserves the right to have authorized University staff or state designees enter the student’s rooms/apartments/suites at reasonable times to inspect, maintain, and repair the premises and furnishings.”

2. RAs CANNOT go through drawers or cabinets.
– According to Marshall Derosa, a constitutional law professor at FAU, the university staff can only search what is in plain sight. If they want to look in drawers and cabinets, they must have reasonable cause and a search warrant.

3. RAs CAN ask residents to open the drawers and cabinets for them.
– This gives the RAs access to be able to report anything that might be hidden in the drawers or cabinets. If any sorts of drug paraphernalia or weapons are found, they can then report it to law enforcement. However, students CAN refuse to open them.

4. If residents don’t close the drawers all the way, RAs CAN look inside (as long as they don’t open them further).
– Again, if they find anything, this gives them reasonable cause to report anything they find.

5. RAs CAN enter the dorm or apartment at any time of the day or night.
– But residents don’t necessarily have to let them in. Clause 15 explicitly states that university staff has the right to enter a student’s housing at “reasonable times,” but it doesn’t specify  a “reasonable time.”
“If it’s a terrible inconvenience, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to let them in,”
said Derosa.  “You have the right to privacy at certain times of the day or night.”

The cost of living

I have lived in the on-campus apartments for almost two years now, and for a while I thought I had it made. I could walk from my apartment to the UP newsroom in just under 10 minutes, and that’s important to me.
But after researching off-campus apartments, I realized I pay more than double per square foot to live in a four-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment than I would to live off campus with a bigger bedroom and my own bathroom.

Here’s how it breaks down:

Cost to live in FAU’s University Village Apartments (four bedrooms/one bathroom/four occupants):
–   Per month: approximately $812.18
–   Bedroom dimensions: 12’5″ x 8’7″
–   Cost per square foot (per month): $7.62

Cost to live in Courtyards of Tivoli in Deerfield Beach (two bedrooms/two bathrooms/two occupants):
–   Per month: $525
–   Bedroom dimensions: 12′ x 11’10”
–   Cost per square foot (per month): $3.71
[Source: FAU housing contract, Tivoli leasing office pamphlets]