CRITICS PLOT STRATEGY FOR BATTLING LAW THAT DENIES AID TO STUDENTS
CONVICTED OF DRUG OFFENSES

Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, urged student activists
and college-aid administrators gathered here at Hampshire College on
Friday to aggressively lobby Congress to repeal a federal law that
denies financial aid to students who have been convicted of drug offenses.

"If between now and September a couple of hundred thousand college
students, along with administrators, faculty, and parents, each wrote
to his or her representatives, and to his or her two senators, and
said, Please repeal this law, I think we would get it repealed," Mr.
Frank said.

Mr. Frank, who has sponsored a bill (H.R. 786) to overturn the law,
made his remarks at a conference that was organized by several
Hampshire College students to bring together students and
financial-aid administrators who oppose the aid ban. Aid
administrators from 20 colleges in New England attended the event.

Congress approved legislation in 1998 that denies financial aid to
students who have recently been convicted in state or federal court of
possessing or selling illicit drugs. Eligibility may be suspended for
one year for a first conviction on a drug-possession charge, two years
for a second conviction, and indefinitely for a third. The 2000-1
academic year was the first in which students with drug-related
convictions could become ineligible for federal aid.

Last year, about 9,000 of the 10 million students who applied for aid
were deemed ineligible for at least part of the academic year. But
aid administrators and student activists predict that many more
students applying for aid this year will be found ineligible for some
or all of their aid.

That's because the Education Department announced last month
that it would withhold aid from students who do not respond to
a question on their financial-aid application forms that asks
about prior drug convictions. Last year, the Clinton
administration allowed students who did not answer the
question to receive financial aid, because of confusion over
its wording. About 280,000 students left the question blank
last year, and still received aid.

Department officials revised the question to make it much clearer this
year, and Bush administration officials decided that to carry out the
law more effectively, they needed to enforce it more rigorously. Out
of almost four million aid applications that the Education Department
has received so far, about 11,000 students have not responded to the
question, and an additional 15,000 appear to be ineligible for aid
because of prior drug convictions.

Rep. Mark E. Souder, an Indiana Republican, wrote the legislation
banning the aid because he said that students who go to college with
help from the government should not be using drugs.

But college-aid administrators who spoke at the conference said that
the law is discriminatory because it punishes poor students who rely
on financial aid to pay for college, but does nothing to discourage
more-affluent students from using drugs. They say the law also hurts
those with troubled pasts who want to improve their lives by pursuing
higher education.

Eileen K. O'Leary, president of the Massachusetts Association of
Financial Aid Administrators, said at the conference that "anyone who
this law denies access to is someone whose future is jeopardized,"
because most students who leave college temporarily never come back.

"So financial-aid administrators know that these students in all
likelihood will never receive their diplomas," Ms. O'Leary said. "And
we don't know how many potential students don't come to college
because when they read the question about prior drug convictions, they
immediately take themselves out of the process by not even applying
for aid because they feel, rightly or wrongly, that they are going to
be ineligible because of prior problems with the legal system
involving drugs."

The Massachusetts Association of Financial Aid Administrators has
endorsed Mr. Frank's bill to repeal the law, as has its parent
organization, the National Association of Student Financial Aid
Administrators.

Aaron Marcus, a Hampshire College senior who helped organize the
conference, said he was heartened to see college-aid administrators
joining with student activists to oppose the law. "Their help will be
invaluable as we try to get this harmful provision repealed," he said.