UNIVERSITY DRUG POLICY ARCHAIC, HEAVY-HANDED

Check your e-mail. Peggy Scott, SFA judicial officer, sent an
all-campus e-mail outlining the University Drug Policy. The policy is
archaic and heavy-handed. Universities have traditionally set a
progressive example in society, but ours has, embarrassingly enough,
taken its cue from the futile and costly federal War on Drugs.

The first sentence of the policy, which was last revised on Jan. 19
of last year, states "it is the declared policy of the United States
Government to create a Drug-Free America by 1995." This in itself is
reason enough to revise the document. The illicit drugs and alcohol
policy is no place for a bad joke.

According to the policy, students who are found to have violated it
"will be suspended from the University for no more than two years and
no less than the remainder of the current semester." A re-evaluation
of this policy is in order.

The size of our campus, the relatively small number of students and
the tiny town where SFA is nestled all serve as attractions for
graduates of small-town high schools who prefer the cozy atmosphere
found at SFA to the hustle and bustle of big schools in big cities.
As such, these small-town matriculates are exposed to aspects of
society not found in their hometowns and are forced to make decisions
with which they have never been faced. For small-town students caught
violating this policy as a result of first-time experimentation, a
suspension of any length could mean that they do not return to SFA or
any university.

Turning our backs on students for making a poor decision is bad
policy. An intimidating number of community service hours coupled
with twice-monthly drug counseling, at the expense of the student, is
more appropriate for a first-time offender. This change to the policy
would not only serve as a deterrent to campus drug use, but could
actually rehabilitate the offending individual, which is, after all,
the purpose of these penalties.