STUDENTS NATIONWIDE FIGHT AID PENALTY FOR DRUG CONVICTIONS

Students Nationwide Fight Aid Penalty for Drug Convictions

Student governments at universities across the country are teaming up
to fight what they see as discrimination against students convicted
of drug offenses. While Northeastern's student government has not yet
sought legislation against the Aid Elimination Penalty, some students
are looking to start a Northeastern chapter of Students for Sensible
Drug Policy (SSDP).

The penalty is a controversial 1998 amendment to the Higher Education
Act that forbids students with drug convictions from receiving
federal financial aid, which some say works against the goals of
higher education.

"We'd like to see a re-shifting of priorities in terms of drug
policies with more emphasis on things that do work like treatment and
education, and less emphasis on things that don't work like prisons
and punishment," said Tom Angell, Campaigns Director for SSDP, a
non-profit advocacy group.

Angell said the penalty is unfair because it can prevent students
from furthering their educations. SSDP advocates for a variety of
drug policy issues affecting young people, but is primarily concerned
with repealing the Aid Elimination Penalty. The law originally
penalized all students convicted of a drug offense, but was changed
in 2006 to only affect those who are charged with an offense while in college.

When filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
students must disclose whether they have ever been charged with a
drug offense. About 200,000 students nationwide have been denied
federal aid since the penalty was instated, according to a report by
SSDP in April 2006.

Seamus Harreys, Northeastern dean of student financial services, said
an additional unknown number of students with convictions don't even
try to get aid.

A student with a drug offense could lose up to $10,000 in federal
financial aid, the maximum amount given per student, which would have
a greater effect on lower and middle-income families, because the
bank loans needed to supplement the aid can have an interest rate of
almost double, Harreys said.

In the last five years, only one student at Northeastern applying for
aid had a drug conviction, and the student ended up being eligible
for other aid through the university, Harreys said. Students with
convictions can still receive financial aid from their college, and
in some states, from the state government.

"Northeastern's job is to educate students ... education is about
opportunity and in some cases second chances," Harreys said.

Congressman Mark E. Souder, R-Ind., wrote the Aid Elimination Penalty
to "deter students from using and selling drugs," according to an
interview with USA Today in 2000.

Despite Souder's intentions, the U.S. Governmental Accountability
Office reported in 2005 that there was no evidence the penalty is
effective in preventing drug use.

Representative Barney Frank, D-Mass., has introduced the Removing
Impediments to Students' Education (RISE) Act, to repeal the penalty,
for the past four years in Congress and Angell expects him to do so
again this year.

"We're working with legislators and we're very hopeful that this will
be the year [the law is repealed]," Angell said.

Students at the University of California (UC)-Berkeley took action
against the penalty by creating a scholarship for students convicted
of drug charges.

David Wasserman, a student activist at UC-Berkeley, said he thinks
decisions should be left to individual schools.

"Universities have a better idea of what's going on on their college
campuses than a bureaucrat in Washington that has never been in a
school ... in a case like this ... specifics do matter," Wasserman
said. "It is important to have some sort of local control."

Wasserman wrote a bill for his student government creating a $400 scholarship.

UC-Berkeley is the first university in the country to do this, but
other universities have taken passed legislation opposing the penalty.

"We felt that writing a bill like this would be putting our money
where our mouth is," Wasserman said.

Rogan O'Handley, president of Northeastern's Student Government
Association (SGA), said SGA has not looked into the issue but would
if the issue was brought up and deemed a "reasonable concern" within
the Northeastern community.

Kevin Wadsworth, a sophomore behavioral neuroscience major, is trying
to start an SSDP chapter at Northeastern and gain recognition by next year.

"The more grand aspirations would be to get the drug laws changed.
[The penalty] is the latest acceptable form of discrimination against
people who've used drugs," Wadsworth said. He said he feels the act
is discriminatory because it does not penalize students convicted of
any other crimes.

Wadsworth said he would also like to get various school policies
changed, like the fines imposed on students caught using drugs.

Wadsworth said he has several friends who were convicted of drug
offenses but they're "functionally happy and morally outstanding
people." He said the drug offenses unfairly dampened their reputation.

"It's ridiculous that the federal government tries to convey this
idea that we will do everything and anything to help students go to
school ... and then implement policies that have the exact opposite
effect," Wasserman said.