What happens when you really want to get rid of someone but he won’t leave and you have no way to make him leave?

You get him arrested on a trumped up charge. At least that’s what the resident hall officials think in Neptune Hall.

After months of conflict and tension between resident Tom Ryan and Neptune Hall directors, things came to a head last Thursday when the University Police came to arrest Ryan for disturbing the peace while he sat amidst intertubes watching “Seinfeld”.

As the story goes, Ryan’s lounging choice “provoked a breach of the peace” by alarming and disturbing hall adjudicator Christopher Waugh.

Waugh should have just relaxed and watched the end of “Seinfeld”.

Some students present at the time of the arrest say Ryan never displayed any objectionable body parts by wearing a towel around his waist when the intertube was not serving as a shield.

Police would have to arrest just about everyone in the residence halls if they arrested those who walked around in towels.

This doesn’t mean Ryan’s actions are supported. In fact, his actions are very questionable considering there is no reason why anyone would want to sit around nude in an intertube while watching television, especially in an atmosphere where others would be present.

His actions obviously had an ulterior motive—to intimidate the residence hall officials. And he succeeded.

For whatever the reason, Ryan has been driving those officials to the brink of insanity. The Neptune/Gilbert Area Coordinator Margaret Phillips has filed a harassment complaint against Ryan because he placed a photocopy of her picture with the label “To Tom, love Margaret” on his door. While the picture could be construed as embarrassing to Phillips, it is not a form of harassment.

There’s obviously some bad blood between Ryan and the housing officials, but these officials can’t get rid of him just because they want to. They have to have a good reason. And charging him with a violation that will probably prove false in the courts does not qualify in that category.

Ryan obviously is striving for some attention, and he’s definitely getting it. How about just ignoring him? Maybe then, he will find something better to do with his time—and so will the residence hall officials.