THE SOONER THE BETTER

University Senate Should Push To End Drug Testing

Wheel Editorial Board

Emory's pre-employment drug testing policy has been operating for nearly
six months, and in that time more than 900 prospective staff employees have
been required to urinate in a plastic cup before they can be cleared for
hiring.

Last December, the Employee Council voted to support a motion "to recommend
suspension of the new pre-employment drug screening policy, pending a full
consultative review and redesign of a more effective and just policy."

This Tuesday, the Council took its case before the University Senate and
called on the Senators to adopt this resolution. In doing so, they would
have urged the administration to temporarily suspend pre-employment testing
while alternative methods of addressing the problem of drug use on campus
are investigated.

The Senate chose not to recommend a suspension of drug testing but
consented to the Council's request that the matter be investigated by an ad
hoc committee, which will report back with a recommendation of its own by
April. In the meantime, pre-employment drug testing will continue with
tacit support from the Senate.

The Senate is right to investigate the matter, if for no other reason than
to perform the simple task of discussing the advantages and disadvantages
of the policy in a University-wide discourse. In its haste to save Emory
from the suspected, but never proven, undercurrent of drug use affecting
its staff, the administration completely neglected this part of the
process, skipping over conversation and consensus-building and going
straight to policy enactment.

Six months after University President William M. Chace surprised the entire
campus by adopting a sweeping drug policy -- making ours among only three
universities in the nation with such an invasive standard -- an official,
University-sponsored dialogue is just beginning.

Thankfully, the students, faculty and staff at Emory did not wait for a
Senate committee to solicit their opinions on the matter. Four presidential
commissions have signed onto the Employee Council's resolution, indicating
their unequivocal disdain for the current policy. The preliminary findings
of the Employee Council indicate that a strong majority of staff and
faculty find the policy "inappropriate." Numerous student groups, fed by a
strong consensus among students at large, have made impassioned statements
against the policy, despite the fact that it does not apply to students.

Since its inception, pre-employment drug testing has saved Emory from a
grand total of 28 drug-tainted prospective employees. (It may or may not be
relevant to include that, among this lot, 24 failed the test because of an
indicated presence of marijuana.)

The potential benefit of eliminating potential drug users is not worth
reversing the presumption of innocence. This infringement of civil
liberties is a powerful argument prima facie, but it becomes devastating
when weighed against such a minuscule accomplishment.

By April, the Senate will have an opportunity to recommend to the
administration that its pre-employment drug testing policy be substituted
with a "more focused" approach to the serious problem of drug use within
our community. If such a recommendation is made, Chace should admit defeat
on this issue and repeal the policy before he heads for greener pastures.
Otherwise, he risks leaving the incoming administration with a political
time bomb as a house-warming gift.

The above staff editorial represents the majority opinion of the Wheel
editorial board.