DRUGS HALT AID FOR 8,900 STUDENTS

Indiana Has Highest Rate Of Financial-Aid Seekers Denied For Drug Offenses

Tonisha Mauldin had more than her clean record at stake when campus
police found marijuana in her IUPUI student apartment last fall.

A drug conviction could have forced her to drop out of Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Mauldin said, because she
depends on loans and scholarships to pay for school.

Federal law strips financial aid from college students with drug
offenses. That law has hit Indiana harder than any other state since
it took effect six years ago, according to an activist group that has
joined a nationwide push to overturn the law.

In Indiana, 8,903 college students have been denied financial aid
since 2000 because of drug offenses, education data show. The number
makes up a tiny share -- only half of 1 percent of more than 1.7
million financial aid applicants, according to a report being
released today by Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a Washington,
D.C., advocacy group.

But that rate tops the nation.

"I really don't think it's fair," said Mauldin, 19, whose record will
be cleared if she stays out of trouble. Student drug offenders
deserve punishment, she said, but denying someone a chance at
university "has to do with the rest of our lives."

The state has a unique place in the national debate. Indiana is home
to the federal law's author, U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, a Fort Wayne
Republican. Souder did not respond to an interview request last week.

Indiana also is where part of the legal backlash originated.

A Ball State University student is a plaintiff in a class-action
lawsuit filed last month by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Alexis Schwab, a sophomore from North Judson in Northern Indiana, was
charged with marijuana possession last fall, when officers pulled
over a car she was riding in. Schwab's attorney, Adam Wolf, said
officers found less than a gram of the drug.

Because it was Schwab's first conviction, she was stripped of
financial aid for one year. Penalties are stiffer for repeat
offenders. Wolf said Schwab contacted a Washington, D.C., anti-drug
law group, which hooked her up with the ACLU. Schwab, who studies
public relations at Ball State, declined to comment through Wolf.

"There are scores of people around the country who commit any number
of nondrug offenses," Wolf said, "and the government doesn't stand in
the way of their educations."

The ACLU's lawsuit argues the law singles out students who can't
afford a college education without financial aid.

Mauldin, of Muncie, counts herself among those financially strapped
students. So when police officers found a small amount of marijuana
in her apartment, "I was really worried," she said. "The only thing I
was thinking was, 'I'm not going to get to go to school next year.' "

Mauldin was charged with marijuana possession last fall, but she said
a judge spared her a conviction in exchange for two years of
probation and community service.

"Everything worked out for the best for me," she said.

Her fate could be a sign that judges and campus officials are careful
with first offenders. IUPUI police officers have directed five out of
14 drug-related cases to the university's dean of students this year
instead of to the courts. The dean's discipline choices range from
expulsion to probation.

"It all depends on the amount and on the circumstances," said Capt.
Bill Abston, of IUPUI's Police Department. "People have a lot of
money and time invested in their education."

Drug arrests at public, four-year universities stayed essentially the
same from 1999 to 2003, according to Security on Campus, a
Pennsylvania nonprofit group. Souder's "drug-free education" law has
been challenged by other federal lawmakers since it took effect.
Those efforts largely failed. The law was modified this year to
affect only people convicted while they're in college. Before that,
the law could apply to convictions before a student got to college.

"That's certainly a positive step, but it doesn't address the
underlying problem," Wolf said. "The law doesn't deter drug use. It
deters an education."