The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3 - 77

Privacy in Dormitory Rooms

mission to search their room when they were
offered the opportunity to do so. furthermore,
even if they had consented, there was ample
evidence that their consent was not truly voluntary. armed police officers blocked the dormitory room's only exit, the court pointed out,
while college administrators stood outside the
door. one officer's statement, "'i would like to
search the room,' sounded more like an order
than a request," in the court's view. the state's
highest appellate court agreed with the trial
court's conclusion that "an objective person
would not have felt able to refuse the officer's
request or leave the room." (p. 890).

sUMMARY AnD cOncLUsIOn
in summary, college students who reside in
campus dormitories at public universities have
a reasonable expectation of privacy in their
dorm rooms that is protected by the fourth
amendment; and officials cannot search these
rooms for law enforcement purposes without a
valid warrant. non-students, however, have no
such reasonable expectation of privacy in dormitory rooms that they have vacated or live in
as guests in violation of college housing rules.
a line of cases indicates that college and
university officials may search students' dormitory rooms for non-law-enforcement purposes
without offending the fourth amendment
if the search is authorized by language in a
housing contract or a reasonable regulation
adopted to maintain safety, security, and an educational environment conducive to learning.
in addition, the ninth Circuit has ruled that
campus authorities may conduct searches in
areas where students have objectively reasonable expectations of privacy without obtaining
a warrant if officials are motivated by a "special

need" to protect the university's security that
is separate and apart from law enforcement
concerns. furthermore, the seventh Circuit
has ruled that university student inspectors
may conduct a "lawful regulatory search" of
a dormitory room to advance "special needs"
beyond the needs of law enforcement without
the necessity of obtaining a warrant. however,
campus officials cannot rely on language in
their regulations or student-housing contracts
to justify warrantless searches that are conducted pursuant to a criminal investigation.
in their treatise on higher education law,
Kaplin and lee advise campus administrators to notify students and seek their consent
before entering dormitory rooms based on
health and safety concerns when it is feasible
to do so. giving students advance notice before
searching dormitory rooms is an expression of
courtesy, Kaplin and lee point out, and an indication that college officials respect students'
privacy. in addition, college and university officials may be more likely to prevail in court
when the legality of a dormitory search is
disputed if they gave students advance notice
before entering dormitory rooms without students' permission (Kaplan & lee, 2013).
finally, although college students may
waive their fourth amendment rights and
consent to a police search of their dormitory
rooms, campus police would be wise to obtain
a warrant and not rely on a student's consent
to justify a warrantless search. the presence of
armed police officers in the cramped confines
of a dormitory room almost always has a coercive quality, and a court might well be sympathetic to a student's argument that whatever
consent the student gave under those circumstances was coerced and not voluntary.
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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3

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