University freshman Richard Brooker learned a lesson in almost Kafkaesque justice last week. Brooker’s room in Thornton Hall was raided Feb. 22 after the Eugene Police Department was tipped off by a DPS officer that Brooker was dealing drugs. All they found was his roommate, a broken scale and some pipes. When Brooker arrived, they found only enough marijuana for personal consumption. On this flimsy evidence, he was charged with being a dealer. The EPD put him in jail for a night, typically not done for a mere possession case that got out of hand.
Which it was. The dealing charges were dropped, and Brooker pleaded guilty to possession.
But the trial doesn’t end there. Almost as soon as charges were filed and Brooker was incarcerated at Lane County Jail, University Housing issued a summary eviction notice. Once Brooker was out of jail, he had only one day to get his things together and leave.
With no due process, he was kicked out. To add insult to injury, he has to pay the penalty for breaking the residence hall contract : $9 for every day remaining.
Summary eviction notices happen without a conduct code hearing — without any process at all — when housing determines that there is an “emergency” that might affect “safety for the residence hall community.” Housing officials say that in cases like this, they don’t wait for things that happen off-campus.
We think they need to wait. There are very good reasons why the U.S. criminal justice system works the way it does. What if the evidence found at the scene is bogus? What if all the charges are dropped? Theoretically, Brooker could have been evicted for no crime at all. As it is, the reaction by housing far outweighs his transgression.
The description of this freshman as an immediate threat to students in the residence halls is bizarre. Certainly, there have been students who could have been conceivably greater threats who haven’t been forced to leave the halls.
Sung-min Kim, who had an actual weapon, a loaded BB gun in his room, wasn’t evicted.
David Gantman, who had several boxes of ammo confiscated from his room, wasn’t evicted. Neither of these two students had any intention of hurting others, and both had legitimate reasons for possessing the items. Yet ammunition and weapons are still infinitely more dangerous than a broken scale, some bongs and an eighth of an ounce of marijuana.
Brooker deserves a fair hearing and a process to determine the threat level he poses. University Housing stepped over the line, and they should step back to reassess the situation.