DRUGS AND COLLEGES NOT MIXING

It's been about a year since student groups in Washington, D.C., began
efforts to strike the dreaded drug question from federal financial forms. A
year later, the forces seeking to repeal the question continue to struggle,
as the congressman who worded the law seeks to change it in an effort that
would allow some convicted drug users to receive aid.

The question - No. 35 on the federal financial aid form (FAFSA) - asks
applicants if they have ever been convicted of a drug crime. If the answer
is "yes," or even left blank, an applicant can be denied financial aid.

Students may see their aid suspended for a year for a first conviction on a
drug-possession charge, two years for a second and indefinitely for a third.

Eligibility for aid can be regained if the student completes a
rehabilitation program or if the conviction is found by the court to have
been unfair and is overturned.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, almost 7,000 would-be
students have been denied financial aid for the 18-month, 2001-2002
dispersal year, which ends on Dec. 30. An additional 8,000 already lost
financial assistance so far in the year because of a drug conviction.

And more than 39,000 would-be financial aid recipients either did not
return the form after being asked to complete a worksheet that would
divulge details about their conviction or simply returned the worksheet
blank, according to the Education Department.

Jane Glickman, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, said the large
number of applicants failing to return their forms should not necessarily
be attributed to fears over the drug question.

"There's any number of reasons they might not return the worksheet,"
Glickman said. "They could decide to be a ski bum for a semester or look at
their grades and say it's not worth it or join the Army."

In the 2000-2001 financial aid period, those who left the question blank
received aid anyway because the Education Department deemed the question
too vague. This year is the first year the department has taken the
question seriously.

At CU-Boulder, 54 people answered yes to the drug question in the 2001-2002
year, according to CU's Office of Financial Aid. However, only eight were
found ineligible and three of those regained eligibility after completing
the worksheet.

Forty-six of those who would have otherwise been denied aid said their
initial response had been inaccurate, according to Evan Icolari, associate
director of client services for CU financial aid.

Icolari attributed the large number of changed responses to "confusion"
over the question, which led some to leave it blank.

David Borden, executive director of the Washington, D.C.,-based Drug Reform
Coordination Network, predicts this year that a similar number of
applicants will be denied aid if a growing movement among congressional
representatives fails to strike the question from financial aid forms.

"We think the question is wrong on several levels," Borden said. "For one,
people have already been punished if they are convicted of drug use. Most
judges, we think, would consider it good that these people are trying to go
to school and turn their lives around."

The question could be viewed as racially discriminatory, he added. Borden
compared U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics to federal Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration statistics.

While that group reports that African-American drug use is at 13 percent,
roughly the same percentage of African-Americans in the U.S. population,
the Bureau of Justice reports that African-Americans constitute 55 percent
of drug convictions.

"It's not that African-Americans do more drugs," Borden said, "It is that
they are convicted disproportionately. We think drug use is a problem that
is rampant in all social and ethnic categories."

Groups like Borden's have had success in their efforts to influence
politicians on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., introduced a bill asking that the drug question
be repealed. To date, 60 congressional representatives have signed on to
House Resolution 786 - none of them from Colorado.

Groups like Borden's and Students for Sensible Drug Policy are campaigning
in states where representatives sit on the House Education and the
Workforce Committee, chaired by Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Colorado Reps. Bob Schaffer and Tom Tancredo - both Republicans - are
members of that committee.

Frank, like Borden, called the question discriminatory. He said it
disproportionately affects students who are poor, because wealthy students
are less likely to need financial aid.

To add to mounting opposition to the question on the forms, Stanley O.
Ikenberry, president of the American Council on Education, asked
Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration Asa Hutchinson to
review the question. In addition, because of the question, some university
groups, like the one at Western Washington University, are pitching in to
help students who are denied aid.

The student government there is offering assistance to those who fail to
receive financial aid because they answered yes to question No. 35.

The CU Student Union has yet to decide where they stand on the issue.

However, should the elected student government take a stand, there are
indications it would likely urge support for repealing the question.

"UCSU has been very committed to access to education for all," said Rob
Hernandez, the UCSU designate who handles financial aid issues. "Certainly,
this is an access issue."

The student government might study the issue, but the earliest that would
likely happen is August, as students return for fall semester, Hernandez
added. Because of elections, that would mean an entirely new student
government would address the question.

If Colorado politicians are going to take a stand on the measure, they
would need to be swayed by students, Hernandez noted.

"Work will have to come from students if we want to voice concerns about
the drug question," Hernandez said.

Frank agreed and indicated that students have been the force behind
changing the law.

"Students have responded in a very encouraging way," Frank said.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., wrote the original drug question. Recently, he
has introduced different legislation through Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. The
proposed law seeks to remedy a problem with the current question added in
1998 as an amendment to the 1965 Higher Education Act.

His bill would restrict the disqualification of students for drug offenses
to those students who committed offenses while receiving student financial aid.

The Drug Reform Coordination Network supports Souder's measure, but says it
would rather see the question repealed altogether.

"It's a fix, but it doesn't really resolve many of the issues," Borden said.