Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 31, 1991 TAG: 9103310133
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B/6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Students on campus say municipal and university rules on drug and alcohol use applied but were not enforced.
Until a week ago Thursday.
Then, swarms of narcotics agents and their drug-sniffing dogs descended on three fraternities and, many students say, violated the sense of sanctuary that envelops the university and the fraternities.
What many students found so shocking, they said, was not that drugs were used and sold openly at some of the fraternity houses, but that three fraternities and a dozen brothers were actually caught.
"There are a lot of drugs going on in the fraternities, but I was shocked by the busts," said student Alexander Lee, 21. "I didn't know it was a federal offense."
Narcotics agents also seized the three houses under federal drug-trafficking laws and charged students with offenses that carry prison terms up to 130 years and fines up to $6.5 million. The penalties are severe because the activities took place within 1,000 feet of a school.
"It's not like they found some huge distribution center," said student Douglas S. Weigel, 22.
The police and the federal government admit making examples of the fraternities in hopes of deterring other students from using drugs. To some extent, that strategy might have worked. Fraternity members seem genuinely dismayed, and parents of the arrested students are in a panic.
"I am worried about his future," said J. Carroll Graham, referring to his 21-year-old son, James Graham, who was charged with one count of selling LSD. The one count carries a prison term of up to 40 years without parole and a fine of up to $2 million.
Sympathy is not universal on campus. "These students broke the law," said Angela Cooper, a third-year student from Florence, S.C. "They got what they deserved."
Others are not so sure. "Was this a situation that was so serious, so grave a threat to society that it warranted such a drastic, extreme response?" asked Robert O'Neil, a professor of law and the director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for Free Expression at the university.
Last week, a student newspaper criticized the administration and the Inter-Fraternity Council, a self-regulatory group, for doing too little, too late, especially after Charlottesville Police Chief John Bowen warned all the fraternities in writing last August that they were liable to federal seizure if drug violations did not stop.
But some fraternity brothers felt so invulnerable that they continued to puff water pipes and pass around hallucinogens at parties, even though they suspected the police were watching, some students said.
Even in September, just weeks after the police chief sent out his warning letter, students say that fraternity members conducted themselves as usual.
by CNB