COLLEGES MOVE BOLDLY ON STUDENT DRINKING

Exploiting an Exception to Federal Privacy Laws, Schools Increasingly
Notify Parents When Kids Are Caught With Alcohol

When Mindy and Tom Gunn sent their son away to college this fall,
they expected the school to send them a bill. They didn't expect a
letter saying he'd been caught drinking.

But two weeks after their son John enrolled at the University of
Wisconsin-Whitewater, the school notified them that the 18-year-old
had violated the campus drinking policy. The letter encouraged his
parents to talk to him about it. And it invited them to call a school
official if they had questions.

"One of my biggest fears when we sent him away was that he'd get into
the party scene," says Mindy Gunn, 48, of Janesville, Wis. "I was
glad to know the school will keep track of what he does and let me know."

The Virginia Tech shootings and other tragic incidents on campuses
this year have shown that many colleges and universities are
reluctant to reach out to parents when there are signs of trouble,
such as a missing or potentially suicidal student. Citing a federal
law meant to protect student privacy, many schools rope off young
people's records from parents and authorities. But in one area,
administrators are increasingly exploiting an exception in the law
that allows them to reach out: drinking and drugs. A growing number
of colleges, such as Texas Tech and Ohio University, are deciding to
call mom and dad about underage drinking and illegal drug use, often
at the very first signs of trouble.

In an effort to involve parents early on, the University of New
Mexico in Albuquerque this fall began sending letters to parents of
underage students the first time their child is caught drinking or
using drugs -- a toughening of their four-year-old policy of
notifying parents after a second offense. Parents "have been an
integral part of their sons' or daughters' lives forever," says Randy
Boeglin, dean of students and director of residence life. "Our
challenge then is to bring them into the partnership mode with us."

Schools say they are being spurred to create or strengthen
parental-notification policies by new reports of excessive drinking
on campuses, as well as worries over their own liability for
students' substance-abuse problems. The concern is that student
injuries related to alcohol use could give rise to lawsuits. In
addition, the tragedy at Virginia Tech in April, where a troubled
student killed 32 people and then himself, has served as a catalyst
for schools to re-evaluate how and when they will reach out to parents.

They're also getting indirect encouragement from the U.S. Department
of Education, which recently provided new guidance for colleges and
universities on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or
Ferpa, the 1974 law that protects the information in a student's
educational record, including grades and disciplinary reports. Ferpa
contains exceptions that allow schools to share information with
parents or authorities in certain circumstances, including when the
school deems there is a "health or safety emergency" or if the
parents declare the student to be a tax dependent.

The college parental-notification policies for alcohol and drug
violations utilize an exception added in 1998 to Ferpa that allows
schools to call parents if a student gets an alcohol or drug
violation and is under 21 years of age. After the law was changed,
some colleges created parental-notification policies, while others
insisted that contacting parents would go against their goal of
nurturing independence in their students.

Whose Responsibility

The alcohol exception is perhaps easier for colleges to use than
exceptions for, say, health and safety, where it is harder to
determine when to act. "What is a health or safety emergency? And
what is an imminent risk of danger to the student? Those are nebulous
terms...whereas the drug and alcohol exception has a direct tie to
judicial proceedings, so it's clear whose responsibility it is to
act," says Karen-Ann Broe, senior risk analyst at United Educators, a
risk-management and insurance company in Chevy Chase, Md.

To ensure that all schools understand their options, last month the
DOE issued three new Ferpa guides: for parents, universities and K-12
schools. "We want to emphasize that you can involve parents with
these students if there are problems," says LeRoy Rooker, the
director of the Family Policy Compliance Office at the DOE, which
administers the law.

Indeed, college administrators are eager to find a solution for
alcohol and drugs, which they say are among the most pervasive and
intractable health-and-safety problems on their campuses. A study
published in March by the National Center on Addiction and Substance
Abuse at Columbia University, or CASA, found that in 2001 there were
more than 1,700 deaths from unintentional alcohol-related injuries
among college students, up 6% since 1998. Also in 2001, 97,000
students were victims of alcohol-related date rape or sexual assault,
and almost 700,000 students were assaulted by a student who had been
binge drinking.

Comprehensive Solution

For years, colleges have been struggling to get a handle on the
problem. They've made kids caught drinking illegally take online
alcohol-education courses and banned alcohol advertising from
sporting events. Now, more schools are seeing parents as one
component in a comprehensive solution.

"Students are increasingly tied to their parents 24-7 with instant
messaging, text messaging and cellphones," says Fran Cohen, dean of
students and assistant vice president at the University of Rhode
Island, one of the first schools to adopt a parental-notification
policy, in 1999. "There's tremendous potential for parents to support
the decisions of students."

But there are skeptics of the policies, as well. Some administrators
worry that notifying parents at the first sign of trouble prevents
students from learning to cope with their own problems. And campus
health-care providers worry that the threat of parental notification
will make students less likely to seek help for alcohol-related illnesses.

Even some parents are voicing concern: When the University of
Missouri announced it was implementing a parental-notification policy
several years ago, a number of parents wrote the school to say they
felt the plan violated their children's right to privacy. The
university then tweaked its proposed policy. Now, it sends a form at
the beginning of each year to parents of new students under the age
of 21 and asks them to sign and return it if they don't want to be
notified that their child is using drugs or alcohol. So far in 2007,
37 parents have opted out.

Nevertheless many parents, and even students, say the notification
letters can be useful. Immediately after his violation for underage
drinking at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in September, Mr.
Gunn called his mom and told her a letter was coming from the
university. She talked to him about being responsible and told him he
would have to pay the $250 legal fine himself. (He was also put on
probation for a year by the school, and ordered to take a $35 online
alcohol-education course.) Now he says he hasn't been drinking since
the incident. "The policy keeps kids in check," he says. "You can't
really do anything and get away with it."

In May 2006, the University of Georgia ramped up its
parental-notification policy. Instead of contacting parents after a
second violation, administrators now send a letter home after the
first offense. At the same time, the university toughened its minimum
sanctions for an alcohol violation, putting students on probation for
a first offense and suspending them if they get a second offense
while on probation.

Last semester, the university sent out 248 notification letters to
parents; 174 have gone out since the beginning of August, says
Brandon Frye, assistant dean of students. But he says it's too early
to tell if the policy is successful in reducing underage drinking.

'It's About Involvement'

Schools agree that for the policies to work, the key is to engage
parents. "It's not just about notification, it's about involvement,"
says Lori Berquam, dean of students at the University of Wisconsin.
In 2005, the university began calling parents of students who have
alcohol or drug violations in certain circumstances, such as when a
student is transferred to a detoxification center or a student gets
three violations (a fourth results in suspension).

When talking to parents, Ms. Berquam or someone on her staff explains
the school's concerns about their child and asks the parents if there
is any background information they may be able to supply. If the
school feels it is warranted, it may recommend counseling.

Tony and Lee Ann Christ say they desperately wish their son's school
had reached out to them. In February 2004, their son, Brian, then a
senior at the University of Virginia, called home and told his dad he
needed help: He had become addicted to heroin. The elder Mr. Christ
immediately took Brian out of school and sent him to rehab. In
December 2004, he died of an overdose at age 22.

A Referral to Counseling

After his death, his parents learned that the university had caught
their then-18-year-old son with marijuana in his room two weeks into
his freshman year. The school had also caught him with beer in his
room the next semester. The university's judiciary committee found
him guilty of violating the school's alcohol and drug policy in both
instances and mandated community service. The first time, a dean also
referred him to counseling. The school never notified his parents,
despite having a parental-notification policy already in place.

Officials at U.Va say the school's policy is to notify parents only
after an actual arrest, or if there is reason to believe a student's
health is in jeopardy. "We're trying to help students become
independent adults and manage their own affairs," says Patricia M.
Lampkin, vice president for student affairs. "It's a balancing act."

Brian was never arrested. And the school points out that his family
did have an opportunity to observe him themselves when he took a
leave from school the semester before he came out about his drug problem.

But Mr. Christ says he nevertheless wishes the school had taken the
early signs more seriously. "Privacy as it's practiced today keeps
parents in the dark," says Mr. Christ, 58, a stockbroker from Falls Church, Va.

This year, Mr. Christ encouraged U.Va to adopt a policy, called
Brian's Rule, in which they would agree to "promptly and fully inform
parents" if a dependent student's behavior was deemed destructive or
illegal. The school declined to approve the plan, saying it believes
its current policies are adequate.