UGA TABLES DRUG, ALCOHOL NOTIFICATION

If your University of Georgia student has been caught stumbling drunk in a
residence hall, you probably won't hear about it from university officials.

After months of discussion with campus groups, administrators have put on
hold a change that would have notified parents about alcohol and drug
violations by their underage children. Instead, the university will
continue to inform parents on a case-by-case basis, according to Richard
Mullendore, UGA's vice president for student affairs.

The question of how, when and whether to inform parents about their
children's use of alcohol and drugs is an issue facing colleges and
universities across the country. According to Sheldon Steinbach, general
counsel for the American Council on Education, "an increasing number of
schools seem to be moving toward notification." But, he added, a
significant number of schools are waiting on data about the effectiveness
of such policies before they make any decisions.

At UGA, the "underlying philosophy is that students are adults, and we
treat them that way," Mullendore said. "What happens to them on campus is
their business. We try to work with the student to change the student's
behavior."

For years, schools usually didn't reveal information about a student's life
on campus to anyone, not even to parents, unless they could demonstrate
that the student was a legal dependent. Changes made four years ago to the
federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act now allow institutions to
notify parents when students under 21 violate a school's policies on
alcohol and drugs.

As a practice, Georgia State doesn't notify parents about student alcohol
and drug violations unless the circumstances put a student's safety at
risk. Some schools notify parents when repeated offenses lead the student
toward serious sanctions. Still others, like the University of Delaware and
Texas A & M, write a letter to parents at the first violation.

David Parrott, Dean of Student Life at Texas A & M, said the letter his
school sends to parents includes a list of "talking points" to help them
initiate a conversation about the student's behavior. The notification
process "isn't done to be punitive, it's done to enhance the partnership
between parents, students and Texas A & M," Parrott said.

Georgia Tech administrators enacted a notification policy in fall 2000.
Parents receive a letter if a student endangers himself or others, is
charged with DUI or is fighting. A letter can inform them that the next
violation means the student will be kicked out of campus housing or
suspended from school. Administrators call parents if an alcohol violation
leads to a student being hospitalized.

Parental notification and other measures Tech is using to reduce binge
drinking seem to be having a positive effect, said Lee Wilcox, vice
president for student affairs. In spring and summer of 2001, officials sent
out 47 letters about alcohol violations; in spring and summer of 2002, it
sent 25.

"When I hear from parents, it's 100 percent appreciation for the
notification," said Gail DiSabatino, Tech's dean of students. "They want to
do the right thing and figure out where we go from here. It's been very
positive."

At UGA, officials have presented the idea of parental notification to the
Families and Students Association and the UGA Foundation trustees. The
responses were mixed, Mullendore said. Some people felt that the issues
were between the university and the students, while others wanted to be
informed of any infraction, including "a beer with a pizza in somebody's
dorm room," he said.

When administrators solicited student input, they "hit a snag," Mullendore
said. The student life committee of UGA's Student Government Association
said they opposedparental notification.

For Student Government, it's a matter of privacy and personal liberty, said
committee co-chair Bryan Grantham. UGA shouldn't act like Big Brother and
contact parents, he said.

"Students at college are adults and are entitled to their privacy,"
Grantham said. "Even if they're in AA, they're mature enough to make their
own decisions."