I am absolutely enraged over the story of the girl who was raped by a resident assistant.

Why do I care? Last year as an RA, my better judgment left me when I decided to smoke marijuana. I was NOT on duty at the time. I don’t sell drugs and wasn’t found guilty of any formal charges, but I was on campus. I did something wrong and accepted with full responsibility my dishonorable exit.

First, I do not in any way mean to bypass the big issue: a girl was raped. I have better sense than to paint myself a victim. Nor do I mean to start a “smear” campaign against the perpetrator. He’s admitted his guilt.

But what is ResLife thinking? Do they have the audacity to believe that they’re somehow above the law? Again I make no excuses for my behavior; it was illegal, but isn’t rape? I had one week to pack and find a place to live at the tail end of the semester. I guess I posed such a threat that unless I left pronto I was going to get everyone high.

The issue is not entirely with the RAs, but rather, with the people responsible for firing RAs and whose red tape is impossible to cut through. Trust was jeopardized due to hypocritical and poor judgments.

I do not believe that all people involved in ResLife are evil, but this last act was indisputably unforgivable. Until ResLife can better explain itself, it deserves no respect from me.

Amalia Kelemen ’08