RA trouble

SirCretop

I need some advice. I live in a campus apartment in ucd -i wont say which one. Recently a group of 11 people including 3 of us resident there were sitting around having a few drinks before we went out to Bondi. We werent making much noise - none of the apartments beside us or above us knew that anything was going on. Our apartment is above an RA office and one of them said they came up because they heard movement upstairs. Two RAs burst in the door and made us get everyone out because the "party" was over. It was ten past ten at the time. When everyone had left we brought back four people again so there was only 7 in the house. We basically were making no noise at this stage. They came back again and made us get them out again. We now have a hearing with the head of accomodation - Can anyone help us out? We felt we have been very hard done by. especially because there was only 11 of us and it was only 10 past 10 when they turfed everyone out. Can anyone tell us any rights we have and any defence we can make?
Thanks
John

SirCretop

I need some advice. I live in a campus apartment in ucd -i wont say which one. Recently a group of 11 people including 3 of us resident there were sitting around having a few drinks before we went out to Bondi. We werent making much noise - none of the apartments beside us or above us knew that anything was going on. Our apartment is above an RA office and one of them said they came up because they heard movement upstairs. Two RAs burst in the door and made us get everyone out because the "party" was over. It was ten past ten at the time. When everyone had left we brought back four people again so there was only 7 in the house. We basically were making no noise at this stage. They came back again and made us get them out again. We now have a hearing with the head of accomodation - Can anyone help us out? We felt we have been very hard done by. especially because there was only 11 of us and it was only 10 past 10 when they turfed everyone out. Can anyone tell us any rights we have and any defence we can make?
Thanks
John

tintinr35

read your licence to reside, take your slap on the wrist and dont do it again, you would think that you would have been aware of keeping the noise down when u had that many people over. the reason they go so nuts about stuff like that is because thier insurance would not cover that many extra people and its also a fire hazard!
ah first years!! you will learn!

Blush_01

I'm not entirely sure, but isn't it 11pm that you have to have guests out by? God, I should read my lease!

panda100

Tis unfortunate where your apartment is based. Tis also unfortunate with the RA's you have. They can either be really sound or total twats.
It does say in your licence to reside that visitors arent allowed over so the Ra's have every right to break up your little 'party'.
The trick is is to use someones flat that is far away from the Ra's office or get really friendly with the ra's. While you may think you are being quiet,the walls really are paper thin on campus so you're probably being a lot louder then you realise.

Stabshauptmann

Pop down to the union corridor and have a chat with Mike Pat the accomadations and employment officer.

AFAIK, no guests between 10pm and 8am

pigeonbutler

I must say I'm shocked at that. I know quite a few RA's and can't imagine any of them carrying on like that. You sure there's not more to it? Had you any previous history with those RAs?

ferdi

some people just cant handle power
just put a big heavy wardrobe infront of the door and party hearty

generalmiaow

^ ^ basically what Panda said. They are not only allowed to annoy you like this but it's their job. Also remember it's coming up to exam time and people do actually study/sleep sometimes. But if you're discreet and quiet you shouldn't have any problems holding parties. Whatever you do don't argue with the RAs, it's not going to help I've seen the guards get involved over what started as a small thing. As regards your hearing, just be apologetic, make lots of promises, and make sure you stick to them at least for a while because they'll be watching you. You do have rights, but in this case you have already forfeited some of them, so don't play the victim for the hearing. Oh and from past experience, you should all dress reasonably well (no pyjamas) and wash for this because what type of resident you are perceived as will make a difference.

Vainglory

Gawd, I would HATE to live on Res.

I realise that doesn't help much.

Go down to the SU and give 'em some work to do.

Stepherunie

10.10 does sound a bit harsh - if i remember correctly the licence says noone in the flats past 11.30 for insurance reasons.

I wish our RAs would be a bit more fortright.... damn people have had friends over making far too much noise until 3am, to the point where I was tempted to call the RAs on my own flat!

Red Alert

I know an ex-RA and i'd say the person involved had more parties than any of the non-RA residents.

singingstranger

Can we get a thread merge for this thread and the 'Urgent Please Help' btw?

dirtydress

I lived on res in first year and yeah they can be tough but that does seem a bit excessive. I'm sure your hearing will go fine though I dont think they like to kick people out for arbitrary reasons in general.

passive

HUH? http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055016795

pretty*monster

Stepherunie wrote:

.
I was tempted to call the RAs on my own flat!

I think somebody actual did that when I was a party in Glenomena in 1st year.

cast_iron

pretty*monster wrote:

I think somebody actual did that when I was a party in Glenomena in 1st year.

Saucy:D

Stepherunie

Further Investigation has informed me that the person who was the cause of said party in my gaff is an unwelcome friend of one of my housemates and she too has agreed if he tries it again the RAs will be called. Wootage of high proportions there methinks.

more ot: most RAs are reasonable enough - I know they are in Roebuck Hall anyways - though I have heard reports that merville is a lot stricter this year.

mloc

Only two of the RAs in merville are "rollover" RAs, that is, the rest are first time RAs and unexperienced. In fact, of those two rollover RAs, one only started last week.

And I've heard some of the newbie RAs are taking stuff far too seriously this year.

Blush_01

I think I know the other newbie RA and he's by no means over the top. He's the kind of guy who can appreciate a bit of fun and is pretty laid back, but won't take any sh*t if things are (or are heading towards) dangerous. Sounds like the perfect kind of RA to me.

SirCretop

we see you!!!! 10 is the best!

Scraggs

By any chance did you have your meeting today at noon?

SirCretop

yeah we did.

Mr.Nice Guy

When I saw the title of this thread I figured it was to do with Irish Republicans making their presence felt on campus. Thanks for getting my hopes up.

MichaelJos17

first of all - you should not accept any punishment whatsoever - or if you do make sure they get the punishment they deserve aswell. From what I hear they try to scare you with a formal hearing where you can bring your solicitor - two friends of mine got a reprimand during the first week and it completely ruined their year in college. RA's are losing the point of why they are there.

They ARE NOT ALLOWED IN YOUR APARTMENT UNIVITE - NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES OTHER THAN AN ABSOLUTE EMERGENCY -and there is no way anything like this could be quoted as an emergency- i quote from the residences website

Privacy

We shall not enter your apartment unless requested to do so or where there is dire need to do so in cases of fire or flood etc...

If we attend in your absence we shall leave a note confirming our attendance and what work has been undertaken.

We will not enter a bedroom when an occupant is present unless escorted by a third party.Back to Top


If you didn't invite them in then anything after that is irrelevant. If you have a bit of money or know someone in the legal profession please take this further. Give those idiots there own "slap on the wrist" to quote the sap who wrote the first reply. If you are the RA who came in uninvited shame on you - its seems that there are rules for the residents and the RAs can invent their own rules

mloc

MichaelJos17 wrote:

They ARE NOT ALLOWED IN YOUR APARTMENT UNIVITE - NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES OTHER THAN AN ABSOLUTE EMERGENCY

Unfortunately, what is on the website is not actually part of any contract signed by residents. Legally, they have a right to come in whenever they want. In practice, this is generally whenever they think there's too much noise etc.

As a campus resident, your rights are severely limited.

MichaelJos17

surely its a sad state of affairs when basic rights such as this are non existant. RA's have too much power and it has really gone to their heads by the sounds of things.

I mean, I don't know those guys - and I'm sure that they aren't angels themselves, but I lived on campus last year and I know that it does say on the license that there are no parties- but then it doesn't say what they are - they can make up their own definition to suit the circumstances

Stepherunie

In all fairness to most RAs they're fair enough - if you're not making noise they generally don't mind.

All the RAs i've dealt with have been perfectly reasonable and I've never taken issue with any of their actions - and they also do knock when they're entering to break up parties.

nando

I had a problem with the RAs walking into my appartment without knocking several times last year. Nothing to do with noise - often there was only one or maybe two of the appartment residents there at the time watching tv or eating dinner. They came in several times with post without knocking which gave me a fright, and one morning I came out of my bedroom door at 7.30am to find an RA standing in my hallway which really freaked me out considering I had no clue who he was! Apparently he needed to check something to do with the water heater... Surely these kind of instances are ridiculous!

Blush_01

Well I have no problem with RAs opening the apartment door to deliver post (I'd rather they dropped it in the door than left it in the hall!), and every time something has had to be checked in the apartment - like when the trip switch had to be changed because it was faulty - they rang the doorbell so far this year.

RAs, for the most part, are pretty ok. They're students themselves, remember? And they are employed to do the job they're doing.

mloc

Have to agree with most posters, whilst I'm biased because I know a lot of RAs and some of my best friends are both current and past RAs, they generally are pretty easy going. Most of the ones I know don't want to make work for themselves unneccessarily and if people are having a good time without causing huge amounts of noise they'd rather stay sitting down than going to break things up.

Again, they are students too, and whilst they are receiving free accomodation, they are not receiving cash in any form and sometimes certain duties like tending to late night fire alarms on a saturday night when they have to get up to study the next day can really become a burden. They also work weekends and holidays (including christmas day and new years eve) which is a pain in the ass. So generally, with a few exeptions, they're just gonna want to do the least amount of work neccessary to keep thier bosses happy whilst remaining fair and trying to keep a good relationship with the other residents.