STUDENTS TO PROTEST SOUDER'S DRUG POLICY

A national student group that has harshly criticized U.S. Rep. Mark
Souder's drug policy for college students receiving federal aid plans to
protest his "rabid approach to the war on drugs."

Members of the group will be in Fort Wayne on Saturday when Souder is
scheduled to speak at a "Paying for College" workshop, sponsored by the
Sallie Mae Fund at the University of Saint Francis.

Adam Eidinger of Students for Sensible Drug Policy said members from the
Washington, D.C., office and area chapters at Earlham College in Richmond
and Ohio University will attend the event to get long-awaited answers from
the Republican congressman about legislation he authored.

Under the Higher Education Act of 1998, federal aid for college students
caught using or selling illegal drugs would be suspended for a year to
permanently, depending on the offense.

In 2000, when asked on their federal student aid application if they had
ever been convicted of a drug crime, more than 200,000 students - 13
percent of applicants - left the question blank.

Souder's office said the controversy stems from misinterpretation of the
law during the Clinton administration and that the congressman is working
to amend the law's wording.

"They interpreted it as a reach-back policy," whereby students were denied
federal aid on grounds of a drug record, said Mark Wickersham, Souder's
district director.

Wickersham said the law was intended to apply to students receiving aid at
the time of their offense, not to discourage applicants.

"We feel good about subsidizing students' education, but we're not
interested in subsidizing their drug habits," he said.
Students for Sensible Drug Policy doubts Souder's efforts are in earnest,
Eidinger said.

"It wasn't up until six or seven months ago that Souder began his supposed
efforts to amend the law. . . . If Souder was prepared to do that, a new
bill would have been done" long ago, he said.

Even members of the Department of Education have said they read the law to
mean anyone with a past conviction, which would have affected about 43,000
students in 2000. When the department processed the 200,000 applications
with the blank drug entry, Souder met with officials to discuss his concerns.

The student group says the 1998 act affects a disproportionate number of
low-income and minority students wanting to go to college. Instead of
encouraging those students to go to school as "a way of improving a
person's life," Eid- inger said, Souder's law "sends the wrong message to
students."

The group has asked to speak with Souder many times but he has refused,
Eidinger said.