INSIDE DOPE HARD TO CRACK AT DUQUESNE

Searching for Duquesne University's drug culture is a bit like looking for
a needle in a - well, a haystack, of course.

This I discovered during a visit to the Bluff campus Tuesday, a day after
university officials convened a panel to conduct an extensive evaluation of
student life - including how extensive a role controlled substances may
play in it.

University administrators were shaken after a student was arrested last
month for allegedly selling heroin on campus to an undercover police
officer. They were rattled further after two students, both former football
players, were charged last week in the off-campus kidnapping and slaying of
a West End man that apparently involved drugs.

After these incidents, Duquesne President Charles Dougherty said he wanted
to be reassured the university does not have a prevalent drug problem. So
he rolled out this committee, headed by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge
Cynthia Baldwin.

How, though, can the panel realistically provide such assurances?

It's easy, actually, if Baldwin's brigade just does what I did yesterday:
Just ask the students.

To hear them tell it, there aren't any drugs on campus. And why would they lie?

In front of Duquesne Towers, the university's largest dormitory, I
approached freshman Tamara Fisher and inquired where one might procure some
cocaine on campus.

"I have no idea," said Fisher, 19, a physical therapy major, as she eyed me
warily.

OK, what about heroin, then? C'mon, sister, give it up. Surely there's some
secret cubbyhole of this conservative Catholic campus in which one can
conveniently cop the Big H.

"Not that I'm aware of," she said, before briskly walking away. She looked
back a few times before finally disappearing from view.

Anne Howley, 20, and Dana Dobos, 19, were equally stymied when asked how
they might score some smack. They appeared surprised the question even was
raised.

The two elementary-education majors acted as though black tar is something
you put on a street rather than in your arm. As though brown sugar is
something to sprinkle instead of snort. As though horse is something you
would find not in a baggie but at a rodeo.

"Honestly, I have no idea where you would get anything like that," Howley said.

Added Dobos: "I've never heard of anyone offering any or anyone using it here."

In the bowels of the student union, I confronted someone stretched out on a
sofa, awakening from what undoubtedly was a narcotic-induced nap. Here was
my ticket into Duquesne's drug domain, I thought.

But Mike Schuelke, 20, a sophomore journalism major from Penn Hills, denied
surrendering to the temptations of substance abuse.

"Actually, I was up all night studying," he yawned. Then he stretched.

I looked into his eyes. Clear, alert. He appeared to be telling the truth.

Schuelke said he believes the upcoming study - which also will examine
student health, safety and athletic issues - is an overreaction on the part
of university administrators.

My unsuccessful attempt to locate drugs at Duquesne aside, the university
probably isn't squeaky clean. But with only three of the university's
roughly 9,500 students known to be involved in these most recent incidents,
Schuelke appears to be on the money.

Not to needle Dougherty but, in the future, he may want to confront such
situations in a less dramatic vein.