OU STUDENT SENATE INJECTS 2 CENTS INTO PLANNED DRUG POLICY

Ohio University's policy on marijuana and other drug use should have
consistent sanctions and be more focused on education than the
current policy, according to a Student Senate resolution passed Wednesday.

In approving the resolution, Student Senate took advantage of a
request from the OU administration to offer its input on how the
university should deal with marijuana and other drug offenses before
the administration unveils a new policy after winter break.

While arguing for change, Tim Vonville, off-campus life commissioner
and sponsor of the resolution, said many students are confused by
the complexities of the current policy and feel that the policy is
not applied consistently.

"It is kind of unclear to students what they will be dealing with if
they have an infraction with some of the 'A'-level or 'B'-level
offenses regarding marijuana or other drugs," he said.

(In OU's Student Code of Conduct, the "B" offenses are less serious
than the "A" offenses, similar to the difference between
misdemeanors and felonies in the criminal-justice system.)

Furthermore, according to Vonville, a system designed to punish and
sanction rather than educate is not in the best interests of students.

"We didn't feel as if repercussions were the positive way to go
about it. We thought teaching was the positive way to handle the
situation," he said. "I believe what we have passed tonight is in
favor of the students."

Notably, Senate suggested in the resolution that a first offense of
marijuana possession (under 100 grams) should result in three to six
months of probation and a mandatory drug-education class. A second
violation would result in a one-year probation, period.

The resolution also calls on the university to hire a licensed
chemical-dependency counselor to help assess students charged with
level "A" drug-related offenses. The classes and counselor would be
paid for by fees levied against offenders.

"(The classes and counselor) are an essential part in educating
violators and people who misuse illegal substances to educate them
about how further use could endanger their health and their future
at the university," Vonville said.

Reminders of the importance of shared governance and a backlash from
OU's tough new alcohol policy instituted this year resonated through
Student Senate as members considered how to stand on marijuana and
drug use at OU.

"There is a distinct difference between marijuana and alcohol,"
Vonville said. "I don't think it would be a very viable solution to
make the alcohol policy and whatever marijuana or drug policy
congruent with one another."

When OU's new alcohol policy was unveiled last spring, it drew
criticism for a lack of student input and a focus on punishment,
even for relatively minor alcohol offenses.

With that in mind, Senate sponsors called on students to take
advantage of the opportunity to provide input for administrators to
look at before they craft a new policy on marijuana and other drugs.

Some senators critical of the resolution questioned why it was not
proposed earlier fall quarter to allow for debate and more research
into the issue.

"Being a member of a hearing board, I have a bit different view of
things, and generally hearing boards do put a lot of thought into
what they do," Residence Life Commissioner Chris Diehl said. "It is
a pretty solid system."

Student Senate President Morgan Allen said that while she does not
think the resolution was compromised by the lack of time to consider
it before winter break, she acknowledged there could have been more
debate and the resolution could have been better timed.

"I was surprised that there wasn't any debate on the resolution, but
I think within the question-and-answer session, people had their
questions answered," she said. "I do wish we could have done it
earlier though."

Even Vonville said that considering the time restraints to pass the
resolution before winter break, the resolution was "not necessarily"
the best it could have been.

"If we were given more time, if we could come back to the situation
and address it given a little more research, (the resolution could
have been better)," he said. "But I think that there always can be
little clarifications within the language of what we produce."

Finer details aside, calling for a policy that is fair and most
beneficial for the students should be the goal of Student Senate, he said.

"I think the university will take more of a strict stance concerning
some of the guidelines that we have produced, but we do articulate
the views of the students first and foremost," Vonville said. "You
do have to remember that we are in an institution of shared
governance; therefore, we do have to maintain a level of
cooperation, discussion and dialogue."

Vice President of Student Affairs Kent Smith said that the views of
students are important when creating a policy affecting students.

"To me, it's the responsible thing for administrators to do -- to
give students the opportunity to give input on something that is
going to have an affect on them," he said. "The premise there is
that people tend to support that which they help create."

Smith said he thinks that the student input will play a role in the
final decision on a new drug/marijuana policy.

"I think it will have a lot of influence," he said. "That's why I
asked Student Senate for their input before we really started
deliberating from an administrative standpoint, because we need to
know where the students are."

The administration's request for student input on the creation of
the marijuana and drug policy was not a result of the backlash to
the alcohol policy, Smith added. He pointed out that he was not at
OU when the alcohol policy was created.

"To me this is just the right way to go about putting in a new
policy in place," Smith said.

It's uncertain at this point what will be included in a proposed new
drug policy. In 2001, OU's Rules and Standards Committee unveiled a
new policy covering marijuana that would have made possession of
small amounts an "A"-level offense, punishable by penalties up to expulsion.

Student Senate and the student group Students for Sensible Drug
Policies protested the proposed change, and the administration backed off.