Full rundown on the new policy
here. My initial reaction is that this will be a complete nightmare for the houses (EDIT: Except for Phi Delt-- heyo!), especially if HPo does indeed use Dartmouth students as undercovers. As a former social chair this terrifies me. In particular, under some readings of the "house party" rule social chairs might be looking at serious fines and jail time. The administration warned us to the possibility of the police and Hanover DA using this house party law against fraternities but stressed that it hadn't been tried before. On its face it would seem to apply to social officers, almost certainly to the person who went to Stinson's to pick up the Keystone.
Yet another reason to allow your hardworking officers to dine in style at the end of the year-- the potential legal liability alone makes becoming an officer very risky for little chance at reward.
10 comments:
I'm on the house advisor list serve (wakka), all of whom are up in arms about this. One particularly memorable quote:
"Can those of us who are Hanover residents propose cutting the police budget? Clearly they have too much time on their hands and it appears that there are budgetary concerns."
Great Point Ro, and it was actually something I wanted to touch on but forgot.
To whit: I forget where I heard the figure but a couple of years back it came out that Hanover had an absurdly high police-per-capita ratio, especially given how low crime is generally in the upper valley. I think Ro hit it right on here, the cops are trying to justify their giant presence in town.
A student got elected to be the town treasurer, so undergrads are not without their voting power if they choose to register to vote in NH... seems to me to be the best way to solve this.
"Yet another reason to allow your hardworking officers to dine in style at the end of the year"
How much is Dom at Canoe Club?
Yeah, we'll have three.
This is a terrible policy which will only serve to push drinking underground and actively discourage the openness that is part of what makes the Greek system at Dartmouth so great.
However, as this news comes on the same weekend as the announcement that the College will be laying off 38 employees (with more to come), I am already maxed out on Dartmouth-related outrage/disappointment. The Valley News had a good article on Saturday about the members of our Dartmouth family who will be devastated by the layoffs: http://www.vnews.com/02062010/6372385.htm
The College could effectively put a stop to this VERY quickly if they cared. Houses like Heorot, KDE, Sigma Delt, and others are owned by Dartmouth, right? Great. When has Dartmouth EVER allowed H-Po to run criminal investigations on its property? Specifically: "Unlike S&S, Hanover Police are forbidden from entering into College
owned property unless they witness a crime taking place or receive a complaint." (See this Rockefeller Center Report here: http://tinyurl.com/y9tkfbk). Thus, no police can enter the facility without the above-mentioned cause. Or else they'd be trespassing on Dartmouth property. Why won't the College look out for its students, here? WHy hasn't Dartmouth made a statement?
House advisors are holding a meeting Wed 2/17 to discuss with Marty Redman (Dean of Residential Life) as well as invitees Bob Donin (General Counsel) and Interim Assoc. Dean of the College Harry Kinne (who also happened to be ex Director of S&S)
fuck marty redman
I should note that I spent about 30 minutes ( I will bill the GLC) investigating the legality of the "sting tactics" (namely, whether non-police operatives can go undercover in private houses to determine if underage drinking is occurring). Traditionally, courts give cops a surprising amount of leeway in this area. The sting tactics, while unseemly, do not appear to be illegal. (Of course, the way that they are actually carried out, may be illegal.)
Anyway, in a town that has few town/gown problems, the police chief just created a stupid one. Nice job, dummy.
Circling back to this-- as you can see it has started. President of Tabard served and scheduled to appear in Grafton County court this week. This is not good.
http://thedartmouth.com/2010/05/28/news/Tabard
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