LAST CALL

For too many parents, the first call they receive about their college
students' drinking to excess comes from the police station - or the
emergency room. It is only after trouble has become tragedy that our
universities notify loved ones of problem behavior. We owe it to parents
and students to change that.

Traditionally, colleges and universities have taken a laissez faire
approach to parental notification of student alcohol violations. One of the
aims of the college experience is to foster student independence and
individual responsibility. Parental notification appears to be the
antithesis of this goal.

However, the independence and responsibility that our universities foster
must be done in a safe a and law- abiding environment. The levels of
drinking on our campuses and the recent tragedies resulting from some of
the excesses demand that we do more to prevent alcohol-related problems at
our state universities. Parents of our university students should be part
of the solution.

I believe we should involve parents more in controlling the problem of
alcohol abuse by adopting a policy requiring all public universities to
notify parents if underage students are caught drinking or possessing
alcohol in violation of state law. Universities should not serve as
surrogate parents, nor should our university students be treated as if they
are still high school students whose parents can be called down to the
principal's office. Rather, there should be a partnership between colleges
and the parents of students in our university system.

THE LEGAL CONTEXT for the proposed parental notification policy comes on
the heels of Congress' enacting the Family Educational Rights and Privacy
Act, passed as part of the higher education amendments of 1998. These
amendments made several changes designed to crack down on student drug and
alcohol abuse and on crimes committed by students. Until 1998, Congress
prohibited colleges from releasing student information, including alcohol-
and drug-related offenses, even to the parents of students. However, under
new rules proposed by the U.S. Department of Education, institutions may
adopt a Policy Of notifying the parents of any student under the age of 21
who was caught drinking or using illegal drugs.

In light of these recent federal legislative reforms, our public
universities are authorized to involve parents in the process of curbing
alcohol abuse among college students. The Board of Regents of the State
University System should seize this opportunity in adopting a parental
notification policy.

In Florida, we should try a parental notification policy on a trial basis
(up to two years) to determine whether it helps to address the problem of
alcohol abuse among our college students.

According to Daniel Carter, vice president of Security On Campus Inc., a
nonprofit organization that monitors crime on campuses, incidents of crime
and deaths mean that heavy drinking can no longer be dismissed as simply "a
part of college life."

ALTHOUGH DRINKING problems on campuses are not limited to the Greek system,
recent incidents among fraternities and sororities have highlighted the
issue of alcohol abuse among university students. For instance, a
fraternity member at one Florida university was hospitalized for two days
after drinking a liter of rum in about 25 minutes during a fraternity
pledge event. Another fraternity was suspended from a university campus
when its members videotaped an initiation party where fraternity members
were underage and had sex with a dancer the fraternity members hired.

Such problems are not limited to Florida. In Michigan, for example, ten
university students were charged with alcohol violations after a party
ended in the death of an 18- year-old student. An 18-year-old Massachusetts
student was found lying on a basement floor in a coma after a night of
binge drinking. In Virginia, five students died in alcohol-related
incidents in 1997. While such fatal incidents are rare, our state
universities should take a more aggressive position in involving parents
long before we more serious problems.

A recent article in The Florida Times-Union reported that national studies
indicate that about 40 percent of college students engage in heavy,
episodic drinking. Research collected by the U.S. Department of Education
reveals that college students spend $5.5 billion on alcohol, mostly beer,
each year - more than they spend on books, soda, coffee, juice and milk
combined. Further, studies and police reports indicate that alcohol plays a
role in many crimes that occur on college campuses.

NUMEROUS PUBLIC and private colleges and universities have addressed the
problem of alcohol violations among students by taking advantage of the
changes in federal law. Such schools as Clemson University, Georgetown
University, the College of William and Mary, Old Dominion and the
University of Delaware have adopted policies to notify parents of student
alcohol violations. Studies at several colleges have shown these policies
are working.

Massachusetts recently became the first state to enact a statewide policy
requiring its public colleges and universities to inform parents when their
children are caught drinking or possessing alcohol on campuses. Florida
should follow Massachusetts by taking a more aggressive stance on alcohol
abuse on our campuses.

Through parental notification, we aim to serve the student population by
forcing accountability to the parents and legal guardians who help support
them in their formative years. In addition, we serve the parents of college
students by informing them of potential problems and asking parents to have
a conversation with their children before it is too late. Even if no
problem existed, parents would have one more opportunity to talk to their
children about this important issue.

We serve all students and our entire state by sending an important message
that we care about the health and welfare of our students.

The first call to parents from a university about their children should not
be the last.