DRUG CHARGES MAY DENY STUDENTS FINANCIAL AID

More than 20,000 college applicants were declined eligibility to
receive financial aid in 2006 because of drug convictions on their
records. Of those 20,000, 6,722 were from Michigan.

Those students were declined because of the Higher Education Act's Aid
Elimination Penalty passed by Congress and signed into law by
President Bill Clinton in 1998. For more than a decade, students who
have applied for federal aid have been required to reveal past drug
convictions.

On Sept. 17 students at Grand Valley State University had a chance to
make their voices heard about a bill going through the House of
Representatives to keep the Aid Elimination Penalty intact.

In July, the House of Representatives passed the Student Aid and
Fiscal Responsibility Act, which would repeal the Aid Elimination
Penalty for students convicted of drug possession policies. If the act
becomes a law, only students convicted of drug distribution offenses
would lose their financial aid eligibility.

Two weeks ago, U.S. Rep. Mark Souder of Indiana, who wrote the act in
1998, offered an ammendment to reinstate the Aid Elimination Penalty.
Souder wanted the law back to its original format where students with
misdemeanor drug convictions would still not be able to receive
financial aid.

"When Souder launched his campaign on Thursday to keep misdemeanor
charges within the law, (Students for a Sensible Drug Policy) launched
a counterattack," said Joel Mounts, a SSDP representative. "All the
chapters of SSDP were involved, including Grand Valley. We had members
contacting their local representatives to let them know how we felt
about misdemeanors being included in this law."

Not only were SSDP members calling in, but many other civil rights and
drug addiction groups collaborated with SSDP to tackle the issue.

Gregory Hatt, the founder of Protest for Peace, was also
involved.

"We sent an urgent message out to everyone we could to call their
representatives," Hatt said. "Students at GVSU were involved by
increasing the number of calls to our representative. These calls
really helped us get the result we were looking for."

Mounts said this is a step in the right direction.

"Thousands of students who have had their financial aid taken away
because of misdemeanor chargers will have it reinstated," Mount said.

SSDP said it hopes that eventually the entire law will be repealed.
The group believes students should not be penalized twice for the same
offense. When the Aid Elimination Penalty is intact, students with
misdemeanor drug convictions are not only penalized by the law but by
having their financial aid taken away, too.

"I am not a fortune teller," Mounts said. "But I really think that our
generation sees things differently than the older generations. We have
quite a movement going here. Things are changing."

SSDP said it wants its members and everyone involved to know "although
we are celebrating our victory today, we have to keep fighting for
tomorrow."

There is no estimated time frame for the Senate's vote on the
issue.

When students fill out the Free Application for Financial Student Aid
they must answer if they have ever been convicted of possessing or
selling any illegal drugs. When this question was added to the 2000-01
FAFSA form, 189,065 people were denied financial aid for answering
yes.

The length of time students are denied aid depends on the conviction
and the number of convictions.

For the first offense of possession of a controlled substance, the
student is ineligible to receive financial aid for one year; the
second offense results in ineligibility for two years and the third
offense brings indefinite ineligibility.

If a student is charged with sale of a controlled substance, he or she
is ineligible for two years, and the second offense means indefinite
ineligibility.