When choosing to live on campus, there are many factors to consider. Yes, you may have to live with a stranger at first, but there are also plus sides. You will live among your peers in a secure building constantly being monitored by trained professionals such as Resident Assistants and Campus Public Safety. CPS, as they are most commonly called, are university-hired men and women who patrol the campus around the clock, making sure that everyone is safe and enforce the policies of the university. But are these authority figures only in place for the greater good of the campus or are they also there as a scare tactic to the students? There has been a new policy set in place within this past year that most students don’t know about until they experience it firsthand.
When an incident occurs on campus, whether it is a violation of school policy or state law, one of two things used to happen. Most commonly, an RA would be called and a complaint would be filed. But if the situation is more severe, CPS will also be called. The new policy is much different. A CPS officer is allowed at any time of the day, not only to key into a resident’s room but have permission to search the rooms and the belongings of the residents living there, whether they are present or not. This means they do not have to be called to act but may key into a room based only on suspicion. Even a police officer needs evidence and a warrant to search a residence.
On campus living is an extra cost students pay the university. Living on campus is similar to renting an apartment, but instead of having a landlord you pay the university. Shouldn’t we have the same freedoms a renter would have? We are paying a form of rent so we should be entitled to some form of privacy; this CPS policy takes this privacy away. We are treated as unwanted guest who can be thrown out at anytime.
CPS is set in place to make the students feel safe, but how can we feel secure when at any moment our privacy can be violated? This policy makes it appear that CPS is not looking to prevent problems but looking for ways to get us into trouble.
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