<p>Right, but what I am saying is that pre-sting, it is likely that something “happened.”</p>
<p>or, it could have just been the insurance company coming in and demanding the audit and action. </p>
<p>Maybe we will find out. Who knows?</p>
<p>Poet, based on the posts on the reddit link, and no one posting about a prior incident, I do not see this as incident-driven. Whether an insurance company wanting improvement or the school, firing people and throwing them out on the street with minimal notice is poor management. Really poor.</p>
<p>ETA – will the RD who allowed this to happen be fired? Be left with no place to live? What happened to the buck stops at the top? This was obviously not an isolated incident. Instead of putting all the blame on the 19-21 Year olds, how about putting some blame higher up?</p>
<p>Well, I completely agree that whatever administrator is in charge needs to lose their job.</p>
<p>That’s a given.</p>
<p>ETA: I’m not “blaming” the RAs. I think it is an outdated system that doesn’t work, anyway. It was invented when only a small population went away to school, and rarely very far from home. I’m not sure putting a sophomore in charge of first years is the best idea to begin with. JMO</p>
<p>Poet, whatever administrator is involved will likely get adequate notice and not be thrown out on the street in 3 days. I am very dissappointed in the school’s actions. It is unfathomable that a group of RAs did anything to justify the school kicking them out in 3 days.</p>
<p>In the comments of the link posted in the other thread, it was noted that half of one of the RA staffs (probably for one dorm) were fired, not half of all of the RAs were fired.</p>
<p>you’re right, it’s not half the entire RA staff, but it’s also not just one building or dorm either - it is several; Northeastern is a big campus. I’ll try to see if I can find out numbers. (But even one college student being thrown to the curb and essentially homeless, especially after paying thousands in tuition, is one too many).</p>
<p>Is it poor management how this went down, probably. But anyone who gets kicked out of housing doesn’t get to to hang around for a week. That’s how it is at a lot of campuses. I also don’t think NE was “wrong” for not issuing warnings first or not emphasizing how important this duty. If it’s on the list of tasks to be completed, it needs to be completed. Even if no other RA are following it, it’s like speeding 10 cars can all be speeding but if you’re the one who gets pulled over the others don’t matter, look out for yourself first. Also if the contract for employment states that a RA can be immediately terminated NE is under no obligation to take a lighter punishment route such as write ups or probation.</p>
<p>Yes but when non-RA students get kicked out of campus housing it is usually (I might say always) for some egregious behavior, and that is understood in the housing contract. I disagree that the circumstances here were egregious in any way, and I do not agree that the punishment fits the crime. I read the entire contract, and it is arguable that the university was required to follow certain steps (such as probation, notice, evaluation standards) before invoking the termination clause.</p>
<p>I wonder if there is a “back story” behind this, like perhaps an ugly criminal incident that occurred during the rounds time and place that supposedly could have been deterred, interrupted, or reported quickly to the police who could have arrested the suspects had the RAs been on rounds.</p>
<p>I’m betting on a heroin OD, in a place where multiple RAs would have seen it had they been doing their jobs.</p>
<p>It would be far from the first:</p>
<p><a href=“http://huntnewsnu.com/2011/02/man-overdoses-in-shillman/[/url]”>http://huntnewsnu.com/2011/02/man-overdoses-in-shillman/</a></p>
<p>Pure speculation, of course. (that’s why I said “betting”.)</p>
<p>" It is unfathomable that a group of RAs did anything to justify the school kicking them out in 3 days. "</p>
<p>Under these circumstances, it would not be “unfathomable”. It would have to be egregious enough, and multiple RAs culpable enough, so that it would in fact be “fathomable”. This is one that easily comes to mind, but if I worked at it, I’m sure I could come up with plenty of others. (And if it was a drug OD, but didn’t result in a death, it might not have made the papers. Such things are pretty common, on campuses and off.)</p>
<p>How could 1/2 the RAs in any one group be responsible? That is absurd. RAs are not even allowed to search rooms. Yes, it is awful for an OD. But a group of RAs not making rounds – how could ALL have been responsible? And was the RD fired and thrown out of his/her house on 3 days notice?</p>
<p>ETA - mini, your link was to the unfortunate death of a 28 year old non-student. Surely you arent holding a group of RAs responsible for a visitor are you?</p>
<p>(I can also imagine RAs involved in a drug ring, which would explain the harsh punishment (which I’m sure was looked at very carefully by university lawyers), the lack of media coverage, and the RAs keeping their mouths shut. Before you jump all over me, when I was in college 45 years ago, I knew RAs - personally - who were involved in a drug ring, and never got caught.)</p>
<p>Why do you assume it has something to do with searching rooms? It could have been a hall way, a basement, around a dumpster, or anyplace that an RA might have been required to go on rounds, with different RAs required to go at different times (9, 10, 11, 12, etc.) and none of them did.</p>
<p>Most colleges put extensive effort into selecting and training RAs. I don’t know how they would replace a large number of RAs on short notice, and screen and train them. I would imagine a university would have a larger liability risk leaving dorms with insufficient numbers of RAs than by letting some RAs continue to serve after a warning.</p>
<p>It must have been something very egregious, it must have been something that university lawyers researched thoroughly, and it must have been something so horrific that RAs agreed it was in their best interests to shut up about it as they were forced to leave.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It is not at all clear how many RAs this refers to – half of the RAs in a group depends on the definition of the group.</p>
<p>mini’s link is from 2011, so it wouldn’t be that specific incident. But it would not be surprising if there were a “back story” that is at least embarrassing enough* for the RAs in question that they have not gone to the media or lawyered up for a high profile legal battle about it.</p>
<p>*Perhaps including exposing themselves to additional civil or criminal liability if they did not keep silent about it.</p>
<p>UCBA – the incident in the link was a 27Year Old non-student, the son of a faculty member. As to the RAs not going to a lawyer, apparently this only happened last week, and sad to say, they may have no legal rights. That does NOT make what NEU did right. Seems like a double standard to me. NO accountability for administration, students expected to have no rights.</p>
<p>But, I’m not sure you would even know if there was accountability for administrators. How do you even know this?</p>
<p>You don’t.</p>
<p>I’m not an apologist for Neastern, but schools are so slow to act on these kinds of things that there must be an explanation, legal, for what they have done. If there is not an explanation, then I would expect lawsuits will be coming down the pike one after the other, or class action.</p>
<p>They can only do this “for cause.” And they have to have a big deal cause, most likely, wildly negligent or, possibly, criminal. They aren’t just doing this on a whim. Their attorneys would not let them.</p>
<p>I find this hard to believe. Northeastern has a huge number of commuter students, it’s still almost a commuter college and a story like this would have spread. In this day and age of social media the story would be out.</p>
<p>The incident I posted was an example. (There had actually been three.) But for every death, there are usually at least 15 overdoses. </p>
<p>That’s speculation of course. But it must be pretty horrific both to prompt the action, clear the university lawyers and the university’s risk management, and for the RAs to be totally silent about it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Northeastern is 3% commuter students. You are thinking of the school 25 years ago.</p>