Students will soon have to surrender the keys to their dormitory rooms and South Campus apartments to the Department of Public Safety and other university officials upon request.

The new policy – an amendment to the Syracuse University Student Handbook – was announced by the Office of Residence Life in an e-mail Thursday morning.

Requiring students to turn over their keys makes the SU policy on keys equal to that regarding SUIDs, said Eric Nestor, ORL coordinator for assessment, operations and technology. The handbook states that students must surrender their SUIDs to university officials upon request for identification purposes.

Administrators did not consider its effect on the ability of SU or Public Safety officials to enter a room or perform a search when drafting the amendment, said Nestor, who authored the e-mail.

The new policy did not stem from a need to enter rooms in the case of an emergency, as officials have campus master keys for that situation, Nestor said.

‘It’s meant for their safety and encouragement that they carry their key,’ Nestor said in an interview Thursday. He did not give specifics about the consequences for not carrying a key.

Nestor referred all questions regarding search and seizure to Public Safety Chief Tony Callisto.

Callisto said Public Safety is restricted by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in search and seizure issues because it receives state funding. Turning over a key does not grant the consent or probable cause needed for Public Safety to enter a room, he said.

ORL officials are not as restricted because SU dorms and apartments, as well as the keys that open them, are university property, Callisto said. A search conducted by the ORL can lead to a referral to Judicial Affairs.

‘Students have the right of privacy and to be free from unreasonable searches or unlawful arrest on University property and within their campus residences,’ according to the handbook.

The handbook amendment in Thursday’s e-mail is effective Sept. 21. It addresses the issues raised when a student is locked out of his or her room.

Nestor said the amended policies should have been in the handbook before, as many of them have been in place for years. He said there has been no recent trend of students being locked out of their rooms so far this semester.

The amendment clarifies that students living in Main Campus dorms and in the Skyhalls have 24 hours to return a loaned key or their lock will be replaced, with the bill going to their bursar account.

The policies regarding fines and loaned keys do not apply to South Campus apartments because they are overseen by the housing office, not the ORL, Nestor said. The amendment does outline instructions on what to do when locked out of an apartment, but this section of the Student Handbook is ORL-specific, he said.

Published on September 13, 2007 at 12:00 pm