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Show to Refuse Officials Play College Campus Big Brother for Current Drug War Efforts by Amy Hudson CPS staff writer efforts academias officials said on college campuses are failing. A number of the campus officials who are supposed to lead the charge against illicit drugs, ir to do so. I anti-dru- g Even as President Bush prepared to go to Colombia by claiming theres been notable progress" in the war on drugs, dont think institutions believe its their responsibility to become BigBrother," said Dallas Martin of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). Aid officials at Nebraska and Harvard universities and at the University of California at Berkeley recently admitted that, aside from collecting signatures on aid forms, theyre doing nothing to help enforce the federal search for student drug users. Aid officials at other campuses have notreported any student drugusers names to the U.S. Department of Education since July 1, 1989, when a new law empowered the department to strip students convicted of drug offenses of their federal financial aid. Its a little too early to tell if the law will work, said Education Department spokesman Phil Cauthen. Nevertheless, four state governors advocated tightening the noose on students a little more in recent weeks. In their list of new laws they would like passed, both Nebraska Gov. Kay Orr and Georgia Gov. Tommy Thompson separately y to make state proposed in schools expel students convicted of drug offenses. In Arizona and Wisconsin, lawmakers will consider bills to cut off state financial aid to student drug users. Thecomplaint Imhearingis Why am I being held at such a higher standard than someone whos rich? reported Jim Smith of the Wisconsin Student Association of the measure, under which student drug users who dont get state aid presumably because they are wealthy enough not to need it could continue to attend classes. mid-Januar- Drug Czar William Bennett fumes during a recent Harvard Univ. speech. Florida Resort Town Rejects Students for Spring Break (CPS) - Key West has joined the ranks of resort towns that dont want college students to invade them during Spring Break. Officials at 210 colleges and universities received letters from Key West city manager Ron Herron in late January, asking them to encourage students to spend spring break elsewhere. Herron also noted 0 a Key Wests hotel rooms cost night, and that alcohol isnt allowed in public areas. Last year 20,000 students vacationed $100-to-$3Q- in the two-by-fi- ve mile island. Hotel officials will show up are afraid that 40,000-plu- s this year if some action isnt taken. If not confronted, spring break could take Key West on a wild roller coaster ride where the last leg, inevitably, is straight downhill to ground zero, concluded the Key West Hotel and Motel Association. Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Springs also officially try to discourage students from vacationing there, while Daytona Beach, one of the few remaining places that still seeks springbreak tourists, has dispatched a task force to tour colleges to ask students to behave civilly. Statewide student associations in Florida, Oregon, California and Arizona have passed resolutions denouncingfederal and state government efforts to tie financial aid to the drug war. Workplace Act The 1988 Drug-Fre- e g and Bushs September, 1989, who students initiative would force get Pell will not Grants to sign a pledge that they use illegal substances. By 1991, all campuses are supposed to have anti-druprograms in place, along anti-dru- g with the means to expel collegians convicted of drug offenses. Already, campus aid officials are supposed to report students convicted of drug crimes to the Dept, of Education, which is then to take the money away. Legally, the student also may be prosecuted for fraudulently signing the' pledge not to use drugs, fined $10,000 and sent to jail for five years. Financial aid is losing its purpose, which is to provide higher education, said Jose Huizar of the student government at the University of California at Berkeley, where in late September about 50 students and gathered on the campus for a smoke-i- n to protest the oath. I dont think its going to have any bearing on anyone, said Julianne Marley, head of the U.S. Student Association, which non-studen- ts represents campus student presidents in Washington, D.C. Its a copout, a nice way to think, Oh, were doing something for the War on Drugs, she added. Even the nations top drug warriors agree, Im sure (national drug policy director William J. Bennett) will concede its not a great deterrent, allowed Bennett See College Page 5 Column 2 Utah Poetry Series at Westminster Jacqueline Osherow Thursday, February Maura Stanton 15 Thursday, April 5 Nunemaker Place, 8:00 p.m. Nunemaker Place, 8:00 p.m. Adam Zagajewski Heather McHugh Thursday, March 1 3rd floor Converse Hall, 8:00 p.m. Thursday, April 19 3rd floor Converse Hall, 8:00 p.m. Mary Jo Salter Thursday, May 3 Nunemaker Place, 8:00 p.m. Sponsored by the Utah Arts Council, University of Utah Creative Writing Program, The Kings English Bookstore and Westminster College February 13, 1990 Issue 16 |