Possible, but based on the users posting history I don’t think so.
so the white complainant knows EVERYBODY in her dorm? (not likely)
Which is precisely why the complainant did the right thing and left the inquires to the professionals, rather than initiate contact with someone unknown and potentially dangerous. Dormitories are only as safe as the residents allow them to be. When dormitory residents see something with the potential to be something bad (Like if this person is an actual resident why are they not sleeping in their room as opposed to a common area? Maybe they aren’t a resident, and if they aren’t why are they here?), they should report it for everyone’s safety. Heck, my brothers made small fortunes robbing dorms when they were in their early twenties.
Oh, good grief. People fall asleep in dorm lounges all the time, as well as just about anyplace else on a college campus. There is nothing “potentially dangerous” about somebody asleep in a college common area.
Attitudes like that are why thousands of crimes occur on campuses (and other shared living space) every year. Homeless “living” in college buildings are a problem for any university with an open campus. And sleeping in the dorm lounges attempts to deprive the other residents of use of what is supposed to be a common space.
No, it doesn’t. It means somebody fell asleep while they were in a common space. College students are often on screwed up sleep schedules, and fall asleep in class, on the lawn, in the library, in the lounges. It’s entirely ordinary behavior, and it is not attacking anybody or intended to deprive anybody of anything; nor does it have the effect of depriving anybody of anything.
There probably are thousands of thefts on campuses every year, just as there are thousands of thefts not on campuses every year. They are not caused by people falling asleep in common areas.
but the real question in this case, considering the numerous incidents of racially-motivated reactions, is whether the woman would have called cops if student was white
Yes. She saw somebody engaging in entirely normal and common behavior, and jumped to the conclusion that the person was an intruder. Do people on that campus routinely call the police every time somebody falls asleep in public? Does that particular person do so? It seems really unlikely.
I call bullshit. Cite that “attitudes like that are why thousands of crimes occur on campuses”? Your cite better have both the attitude and the thousands of crimes part clearly laid out, eh.
Students studying are just attempting to deprive other students of the use of what is supposed to be a common space. Students not studying are likewise just attempting to deprive other students of the use of what is supposed to be a common space. Everybody in the common space is only there in an attempt to deny other’s the use of the common space, in fact.
Students studying together, talking, hanging out watching television in the communal areas are using the space for the communal activities it was designed to be used for. People sleeping in the communal area are being selfish jerks if they are students who have bedrooms (the intended places for sleeping or other activities where noise is to be curtailed) or they are trespassers that should not be there in the first place.
You obviously don’t know much about college campuses or life in large groups of people in general. We either look out for our safety and the safety of others or we live in an increasing violent and predatory word. The previous poster’s attitude appears that one should go blissfully along ignoring everyone and everything, taking no precautions. Thieves rely on this mentality
. My cite is the large number of professional thieves, I know.
So those are the only two options? Fear everything or fear nothing? Oh, that’s right: you’re a fucking lunatic.
The common area of my college dorm in the late 90s was meant to be used for rest and relaxation, and no one ever complained about the fact that at least one resident was napping on a sofa on most afternoons. Certainly no one ever called the police. Napping on sofas is a normal and harmless activity for residents of a college dorm. In our profoundly biased society, calling the police on black people who aren’t harming anyone puts them in serious danger and is morally wrong.
There are many options. The best is stay alert, examine your surroundings and don’t be afraid to ask questions or take precautions if there could be a problem. Better safe than sorry.
Lived on one for three years and hung out on it while living off-campus for the fourth. Hung out on some others from time to time.
Have family members currently in college as students and others as professors.
You?
They put couches in those areas for a reason.
Oh, and students fully enrolled, paying for their dorm rooms, and not at least at the moment sleeping outside them are sometimes thieves. Even if they’re studying together or watching TV. Are you going to call the police on everybody you see? Because they’re going to quit paying you attention pretty quick; or for that matter charge you (under more formal language) with wasting their time.
The world is filled with evil people that might sleep on a communal couch or worse try to shake your hand, right?
CMC
What you mean is, better to keep yourself safe no matter the cost in other people being sorry.
What a sad and frightened little world you live in.
I earned a Bachelors and a Masters (lived in a dormitory briefly and couldn’t stand it), and I’ve been working in a University Library for decades. Theft is one of our biggest problems on campus. Almost all of which could be prevented by not leaving valuables unattended, not letting strangers into residence halls, or locking dorm rooms. We post signs all over the Library telling people to watch their belongings. Does it work? Not really, and we deal with so many stolen backpacks and laptops that I have lost all sympathy for anyone that gets robbed after leaving something while they go to the restroom or the vending machines. Because of our urban location the homeless use our facilities as a respite from the heat and for a clean restroom. Some of them are probably decent people others have serious mental problems and can be dangerous. Very dangerous.
Interesting anecdote (for certain values of “interesting”). When you have something that amounts to actual data, I’ll be more interested.
In other words, your life experience is not universally true for everyone.
I don’t see how that’s got anything to do with whether someone who’s fallen asleep in a student lounge is more likely to be a thief than somebody who’s sitting up watching TV.
I’m willing to consider the possibility that ZPG_Zealot’s university is so dangerous that nobody except those with no other place to sleep dares fall asleep outside a locked dorm room. I rather doubt that a common room on the 12th floor of Yale’s Hall of Graduate Studies falls into that category. Certainly no university I’ve hung out at was/is like that; but it’s true that doesn’t mean there are none such.
I’m wondering what evidence there is to support the claim that the world is increasingly violent and predatory. It was arguably more violent when I was in college nearly 30 years ago. Theft was certainly a common problem, as were muggings and date rape. People played drinking games in the common area of my dorm hall and at no time were cops called. In fact I can recall a party that turned into drunken vandalism in the wee hours of the evening & morning - no police, not even the fire department and I think this was after some idiot pulled the fire alarm as a prank. One of the assistant deans visited each and every one of our dorms the following day to have a no-nonsense talk about what happened, but no cops with guns. This was back before campus and local police departments became mini-homeland security departments.