<p>So I got an alcohol write up recently. I had gone to an informal hearing with the assistant resident dean and she didnt believe that I was not drinking, so I've decided to go to a formal hearing to fight it out. </p>
<p>So the real deal was that we were on campus, at my place, drinking/partying not suspiciously too loud, but i think just barely enough for RA's to come check our place out. When they had knocked I came out (red in the face/and probably smelled like alcohol) and told them no one else was inside with me, and had apologized for being too loud. They accused me of drinking and was very insistent on me letting them in. I had told them no to both, and that I saw no reason for them to come in. Now they are giving me a write up and I see no significant evidence or proof of 1) anyone being in the building (just that they heard "footsteps") and 2) me drinking on campus since they havent found anything. </p>
<p>What do you guys think is enough proof to say I was drinking, or better yet drinking on campus? The only thing I am worried about, is that the whole RA report seems to imply very heavily that I was having a party of sorts and the fact that they may have heard cans, people, (plus me not letting them in) may imply that I was drinking but not necessarily on campus.</p>
<p>The smell of alcohol can be overwhelming; if she smelled it on your breath or coming from the room, that’s probably enough for her to insist you were drinking.</p>
<p>Outside of that, and not finding any actual evidence (beer/wine bottles, and admission of drinking, etc.) it sounds like she doesn’t have any proof.</p>
<p>However, you were doing what she accused you of, correct?</p>
<p>Wait, are you angry because you’re wrongly accused, or because you were rightfully accused without evidence?</p>
<p>I’m on the Hearing Committee at my school, and the most p*ssed off kids are not the ones who are wrongly accused, but the ones who are guilty and don’t think that there’s enough evidence against them. What probably happened is that you were probably partying louder than you thought you were, an RA suspected there were more people, and smelled alcohol on your breath, I mean, what more do you need? If you were innocent, you would’ve let them look around, but you refused, and that’s strong evidence right there.</p>
<p>If you were wrongly accused, make some noise and bring up the points you mentioned, if you actually were drinking, suck it up and admit it. As a Hearing Comm. member, take my advice and don’t beat around the bush and talk about insufficient evidence, they’re experienced and know about 90% of time whether or not someone is guilty or innocent, and it reflects well on you if you can be an adult about it.</p>
Yeah, let’s shoot heroin from now on. It doesn’t seem to make much, if any, noise! So, yeah, who cares? The RA cares.</p>
<p>As for you Sebastianz, I’m sorry; you may not be as smart as you think you are. I really don’t believe you have much of a case, especially after not allowing your RA to enter your room to prove yourself innocent right then and there. However, you were drinking, so man up. There are so many holes and contradiction in your story that I’m sure you’ll be talked about around the water cooler.</p>
<p>It’s none of the RA’s business if it’s not disturbing anyone and if they don’t actually see any alcohol.</p>
<p>You obviously took the right course of action by not allowing them in; there’s no way they should be able to write you up without actual hard evidence. I think you definitely have a case on your side.</p>
<p>Calmly show up to the hearing and state the truth. Don’t be worried.</p>
<p>You did the right thing by not letting the RA in, since the RA has no business in going in. If everyone takes the “nothing to hide” stance, then privacy will be gone.</p>
<p>There’s clearly no evidence, and you should tell them what you told us here. Tell them that you were indiscriminately defending your privacy by not letting the RA in.</p>
<p>As for the noise, that’s a bit subjective. You might have been louder, so it depends on your university’s policies.</p>
<p>In any case, there’s usually not a lot of justice in these things, so don’t expect too much. If it doesn’t turn out favorably, threaten to withdraw from the dorms.</p>
<p>Okay, so it was loud enough at least that the RAs asked him to open up. They probably told him to be quiet. Then, they suspected alcohol use; fair enough. But they were not let in and never found any evidence of alcohol. Although it certainly doesn’t help his case that he didn’t let them in, the fact that they have zero hard evidence of alcohol means they do not have any real case against him, just like they wouldn’t have a real case against him in the US judicial system. They need some sort of proof that he was consuming alcohol.</p>
<p>College students drink, they shouldn’t be written up for it by peers who are RAs unless they are being obnoxiously loud and haven’t quieted down despite being warned, or are being rude, or violent, or are carrying alcohol/bottles/cans out in the hallways or outdoors. If someone is drinking in their room and they’re making some noise, it’s fine for the RAs to knock and ask them to quiet down. It’s not fine for them to try and write someone up for drinking when they *don’t see any alcohol *and the person in question is not being rude or belligerent (politely but firmly refusing to let them in your room is not rude or belligerent).</p>
<p>OP, the RAs at your school sound like “not very nice people”, to put it nicely.</p>
<p>Right, but that in itself is not enough proof. Maybe somebody spilled it on them while they were walking around, maybe one of another thousand things happened. I work in a bio lab with ethanol sometimes, one time I spilled it on my hand. Anybody near me could smell “alcohol”, but I certainly was not drinking.</p>
<p>Now obviously, anyone could figure out that “smell of alcohol” + “college student in room on weekend” = student was probably drinking. But probable cause is not enough (for an RA) to write someone up. If the RA saw cans or bottles in the room, that would prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there was drinking in that room and that the student had been drinking. Without this concrete sort of evidence, they don’t really have any foundation to write someone up.</p>
<p>There is probably a clause in the residential life rules that says that failure to comply with the Residential staff instructions may lead to diciplinary action. (there certainly is in the rules and regs at my daughter’s school). In that case the RA can write you up just because you refused to allow him in the room to check for alcohol. I imagine they have a lot of experience to the ‘you can’t prove it’ defense and will have their own ways of dealing with this. </p>
It certainly is. The RA wrote him up, and now the defendant has his day to prove himself innocent. Whether or not he could do it is up to him, but he should know that there are rules to live by, especially when signing a contract. Letting the RA into the room was not a matter of privacy, it was a matter of trying to get away with something. Let’s just focus on this case!</p>
<p>You could still raise an issue, and try to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was drinking without physical evidence; it’s a two way street.</p>
<p>If you get away with this, have fun watching your back every weekend with the RA trying to nab you or get even with you.</p>
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