DRUG WAR SEEPS INTO UNIVERSITIES

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Higher Education Act into
law. By establishing federal financial aid programs, this act was an
attempt to open the doors to a college education to students who might not
otherwise have been able to attend.

However, in 1998, during the law's congressional reauthorization, Rep. Mark
Souder (R-Ind.) authored a provision that disqualifies applicants based on
any prior drug conviction, even non-violent misdemeanors. According to the
Department of Education, over 91,000 students to date have had their
financial aid fully or partially denied because of the new provision. This
makes the HEA Drug Provision the No. 1 legal obstacle to low and
middle-income families trying to send their children to college. The law
applies a second level of punishment to the students who need extra help to
pay for their college education: those from poor and middle-class families.

Over 40 groups have argued that by denying access to education, the HEA
Drug Provision closes the door to the best opportunities of society,
thereby fulfilling the prophecy that drug use ruins the future of young people.

Worse yet, the Drug Provision brings the inequities of the drug war into
the realm of college enrollment. According to the Department of Justice and
Department of Health and Human Services, people of color commit drug
offenses at a rate proportional to their percentage of the United States
population (Hispanics 12.5 percent and black non-Hispanics 12.6 percent),
but 46 percent of those charged with drug offenses are Hispanic and 28
percent are black.

At a time when American colleges and universities are struggling to make
gains in minority academic achievement, they cannot afford to have
enrollment dictated by the injustices that infest the war on drugs.

Substance abuse among our young people is a serious national problem, but
blocking the path to an education is an inappropriate response. Closing the
doors of our colleges and universities, making it more difficult for
at-risk young people to finish college and succeed in their goals, is not a
policy fit for an advanced society such as ours. There is a bill in the
House of Representatives that would repeal the drug provision: H.R. 685,
introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). In support of H.R. 685, today is
a national day of action with coordinated events all around the country.

Concerned citizens will be calling their representatives and voicing their
opposition to the HEA Drug Provision. On the way to your next class, use
those precious minutes on your cell phone to call your representatives to
let them know that you support H.R. 685, the legislation to repeal the HEA
Drug Provision. Do not forget to also call the representative from your
hometown (you can find them at www.house.gov).

These would-be students have already paid whatever price the criminal
justice system demanded.

Judges handling drug cases already have the option of denying drug
offenders federal benefits, and school administrators have the power to
expel problem students.

When we deny students the opportunity for a college education, it brings us
no closer to solving the nation's drug problem; instead, it only increases
the already destructive impact of the horribly misguided war on drugs. Our
university's administration has the responsibility to do what it can to
protect against assaults on higher-education funding, which they have been
doing admirably thus far with the budget cuts. University President Dan
Mote's colleagues Gregory Prince and Richard C. Levin, the presidents of
Hampshire College and Yale University, respectively, have been very
aggressive in voicing opposition to the HEA Drug Provision and have pledged
that students attending their schools will not be denied financial aid for
a drug conviction. The following university groups hope very much that
President Mote and his administration will have the courage to voice their
opposition to this misguided policy: American Civil Liberties Union,
College Park Libertarians, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Electronic
Dance and Music Club and the International Socialist Organization.

For more information, visit www.RaiseYourVoice.com, and come to Jimenez
0220 on Thursday, April 10 at 7 p.m. to hear a panel discussion titled "The
Drug War and its Effects on Higher Education."

Martin Baer is co-president of the university's Students for Sensible Drug
Policy. He can be reached at umdssdp@hotmail.com.