Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991 TAG: 9104040179
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG/ HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"If you're trying to instill moral order in today's youth, you can't carry on with an intrusion of students' privacy," Hal Krent, a constitutional law professor at the University of Virginia, said in a telephone interview.
"The way the law follows now, you can't simply have general drug testing."
Gov. Douglas Wilder - who on Tuesday announced creation of the task force on college alcohol and drug abuse and sexual assault - had told reporters he would not object to drug testing for freshmen at state colleges, as well as random testing.
State Education Secretary James Dyke, who will be chairman of the task force, said the state will look at drug testing as a means to deter abuse. But he said in no way is the government saying it advocates such an action.
"It's an issue we will certainly examine," Dyke said. "And I think there are permissible ways to do it. But it's not even a proposal."
Other thorny legal questions are likely to emerge, administrators said. One question would be the extent of a university's authority over students who live or misbehave off campus.
"What can we do with students off campus? That's the major problem," said Virginia Commonwealth University President Eugene P. Trani.
Administrators said schools may be limited to traditional measures such as suspension or expulsion of students found to have broken laws or rules.
At Virginia Military Institute, where all students live in barracks, illegal use of drugs or alcohol is met with immediate dismissal.
"There are significant consequences, and the students know that," said Lt. Col. Bill Stockwell, chairman of the school's drug and alcohol program.
It was clear, following a meeting of Wilder and university presidents this week, that officials are serious about cleaning up the state's college campuses. But how they might go about it brought questions from the people who run those campuses.
The governor has sought to toughen his stand against drug use in the wake of a raid last month on three fraternity houses at the University of Virginia, an effort most administrators applaud.
But they were quick to point out that the problem is not just on college campuses, not just in Virginia, but across the nation.
"I'm not interested in a blanket indictment of students across the campus and the commonwealth," said Virginia Tech spokesman Darrel Martin.
"I don't think you'll be able to look on any campus where you have a lot of students and not find instances of alcohol or drug abuse. But a large majority of students on campuses across the nation have respect for the law. You can't indict the many for the actions of a few."
Abuse problems don't begin in the college system but in the moral system, said Ron Carrier, president of James Madison University.
"If we're going to solve this problem, which is one that deals with values, we will need to teach people about themselves. Early education programs are important instruments in dealing with it."
He said a drug-testing program would be "an unbelievable expense."
"Can you imagine if I had to buy 11,000 testing cups? . . . I would hope we wouldn't have to come to that to solve our problems."
Stockwell said he would be in favor of drug testing, should it help in preventing abuse. "But that would be assuming it was legal and ethical. . . . And there is a significant question of whether it would be legal to begin testing college students."
Krent said officials would have to show either a compelling need or an individual suspicion to be able to institute drug tests.
Stephen Pershing, legal director for Virginia's American Civil Liberties Union, applauded the state's call for a survey on date and acquaintance rape. But he said what seemed to make the headlines "or what may even have been intended to grab the headlines was that youngsters should be able to enter a college drug-free, and that random or mandatory drug testing may be a part of that."
He said he finds it hard to imagine any way that drug testing freshmen or randomly testing upperclassmen could be constitutional.
"They can come down with a lead foot if they want, and they might actually trample a bug or two," Pershing said. "But the solution in general terms is not to call out the militia, it's to talk and listen together."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
by CNB