WSN OVERPLAYED DRUG PROBLEM

To the Editor:

Substance abuse is an important issue to address here at NYU. However, I am
not certain that Jon Mummolo's article in Monday's Washington Square News
advanced the conversation constructively ("High times in NYU dorms," Dec. 2).

John Sexton has stated publicly that he believes addressing substance abuse
is necessary to improve the quality of the undergraduate experience here,
and that the use of alcohol and drugs erodes the quality of life for all
students. I think it is fair to say that his administration began the
conversation we are now having.

It was at a recent senate meeting that the university's administration
shared the findings of the ACHA survey --- that 29 percent of first-year
student respondents at NYU said they had used marijuana in the previous 30
days.

Our reaction to the data is twofold. First, this was the first time we had
administered the survey, so we have only one data point to work with. We
think it is an important step for the university to collect this data --
the 2002 data is being analyzed now -- and to begin discussing it in an
open fashion. Second, because we are early in the process of studying this
phenomenon, it is difficult to say anything conclusive besides this: The
data points to an unacceptably high level of usage.

As for drug dealing: No dealing is acceptable, and we should catch and
expel every single person involved in dealing. Clearly, Washington Square
News put serious effort into its reporting. It is all but certain that some
drug dealing goes on in residence halls -- we know this because we catch
students from time to time and dismiss them from the university. If we are
catching some, it seems likely that others are eluding us, but the
depiction of it as widespread seems insupportable.

As Housing and Residence Life Executive Director Tom Ellett pointed out, we
ask students who are caught using where they got their drugs. They seldom
say they obtained them from dealers in a residence hall.

Beyond that, there is another problem with the article's assertion about it
being widespread: It is simply hard to know. This activity is so
reprehensible and the consequences so severe, it is of necessity done in a
secretive and subterranean manner. That makes it difficult to know its
extent definitively. However, given the extent of staff in the residence
halls -- resident assistants and managers -- it seems highly unlikely that
it is as widespread as your article suggests.

Which leads us to a question of community standards. To whatever extent it
exists, this problem needs to be solved, and the solution must involve the
grass roots: the students themselves. In administering the ACHA survey and
discussing the findings -- a new undertaking for us, and one we did
voluntarily -- we are trying to build a community where we can have
meaningful communication about these subjects. That includes building a
community in which students who know peers who are dealing will come
forward and report them.

When we look at some of the problems that concern us most -- fire safety,
property theft or drug dealing in residence halls -- these are matters that
pertain to our community. Whichever way we address the issue of substance
abuse, our student community will have to take it upon itself to be a part
of the solution.