STUDENTS RALLY TO REPEAL PENALTY FOR DRUG CONVICTION

Each year students across the nation fill out the Free Application
for Federal Student Aid, and when they do, there's a small box under
Question 31 that - if marked - can cost them significant federal aid.

College students in the United States and Canada rallied against this
question, which asks students if they have been convicted for the
possession or sale of illegal drugs, last week as part of the
Students for Sensible Drug Policy's week of action.

Tom Angell, government relations director for SSDP, said about 40
campuses participated in the week of action against the Aid
Elimination Penalty, though K-State was not one of them.

"We try to emphasize this penalty doesn't just hurt individual
students, it hurts every American taxpayer by hurting the economy,"
Angell said.

The Penalty

The penalty is part of the Higher Education Act that was signed in
1965 "to strengthen the educational resources of our colleges and
universities and to provide financial assistance to students in
postsecondary and higher education," according to the act.

Angell said Congress reauthorizes the act about every five to seven
years, and the last reauthorization was in 1998 when an amendment was
made to the act causing students to lose their financial aid for drug
convictions.

"We've been mobilizing students ever since day one in working to try
to repeal that penalty," Angell said, "and it is not just a bunch of
students that are angry about this. We have prominent education
groups, like the National Education Association, and folks concerned
with addiction recovery."

Angell said he has heard the Committee on Education, Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions plans to reauthorize the act before the
end of the year.

"It's tough to tell," he said. "We keep hearing different things.
That's one of the things I've learned at Washington D.C. I've learned
that Congress basically does things on their own schedule, and they
usually don't give you a good advance warning."

According to an Oct. 10 release from the organization, SSDP wants the
penalty to be repealed to help stop "the war on drugs from becoming a
war on education." The release states that the penalty "causes more,
not less, drug abuse and crime in our society by limiting young
people's opportunities for success."

According to the release, the organization is a network of students
who "are concerned about the impact drug abuse has on our
communities, but who also know that the war on drugs is failing our
generation and our society."

The FAFSA

Katie Starling, associate director for the Office of Student
Financial Assistance at K-State, said the office follows the national
policy for the Aid Elimination Penalty.

"What would happen is when we get their FAFSA data, it would have a
flag on it," she said. "We would have to resolve that before federal
aid is processed."

Starling said if a student is convicted of drugs, their financial aid
is not pulled immediately. Instead, the next time they fill out a
FAFSA, they must select the box that states that they have had a drug
conviction.

Starling said she does not know of any students at K-State that the
policy has affected. She has not seen any FAFSAs that have had the
non-eligible flag during the year she has worked at K-State.

If students answer yes to being convicted for the sale or possession
of illegal drugs while filling out the FAFSA, students can enter
their information into a worksheet to determine if they are eligible.

However, the form states students who were convicted before they
turned 18 and were not tried as adults, and students who had the
conviction removed from their record, do not have to select yes on the form.

The Students

One K-State alumnus was convicted for being in possession of
marijuana in December 2004.

"We were smoking in my friend's vehicle and got pulled over," he
said. "The cop smelled drugs, and so he called for backup and started
searching until he found a roach in the ashtray."

Though his financial aid was not affected, the alumnus said the
police threatened him and said he ruined his future and told him,
"when Sallie Mae hears about this, your financial aid is gone."

The alumnus said he could have contested his conviction because the
drugs were in his friend's vehicle, but he was too worried about
losing his financial aid to fight the case, so he pled no contest and
got a diversion.

"My grades went down while I had to deal with the court case and
lawyers and everything," he said. "I was so worried about losing my
aid that I couldn't really concentrate in my classes, so I just gave
up on the case."

The alumnus said he is against the penalty because college is a time
for experimentation, and he said if students' lifestyles do not
interfere with their grades, it should not have an effect on financial aid.

"The war on drugs has went on long enough," he said. "It has failed
miserably. Our jails are overflowing from people committing
victimless crimes. And when someone has the guts to take the path
less traveled, they try to stop that person from getting educated."

Angell said now is the most important time to be campaigning against
the penalty since the reauthorization could happen soon.

He said the organization encourages students to send letters to
Congress or start campus chapters.

"Since this policy is targeting students and young people, it is up
to our generation to fight back," Angell said. "If we don't speak up
to Congress that this is a bad idea, then it will remain on the law books."