Pubdate: Mon, 12 Mar 2007
Source: Daily Sundial, The (CA Edu)
Copyright: Daily Sundial 2007
Contact:  http://sundial.csun.edu/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2731
Author: Bejan Siavoshy
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?219 (Students for Sensible Drug Policy)

STUDENTS WITH DRUG CONVICTIONS COULD SOON HAVE KINDER  FINANCIAL FATE

College students with drug convictions face financial  aid 
restrictions under a current education act that  will be up for 
revision this summer by Congress.

The Department of Education reported that approximately  198,000 
college students around the country have been  denied financial aid 
because they checked "YES" for the  question on the FAFSA: Have you 
been convicted for the  possession or sale of illegal drugs for an 
offense that  occurred while you were receiving federal student aid?

Although there has not been an official school-run  scholarship 
available to students who have had drug  convictions at CSUN, there 
have been private  scholarships provided in the past aimed 
specifically at  alleviating the costs of their education. Perry 
Ellis America, a clothing company, provided the most 
recent  scholarship of this nature to CSUN students, but was 
no  longer offered in 2005.

Jannaee Brummell, CSUN's scholarship coordinator, said  an 
organization discontinuing a scholarship is a common  occurrence. 
Committees within these organizations of  business are formed to 
decide whether they should  continue providing the scholarship. No 
one at Perry  Ellis America was available for comment.

The Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a grassroots  student 
organization based in Washington D.C., has been  fighting the policy 
stated in the act that restricts  students with drug convictions from 
attaining financial  aid for a minimum of two years if they are not 
involved  in a narcotics treatment program.

"The aid elimination penalty (for students with drug  convictions) is 
supposed to reduce substance abuse, but  it actually causes more 
problems by blocking access to  education," said Kris Krane, 
executive director of the  SSDP.

The SSDP has chapters on college campuses that become  involved with 
students, advocating for them to contact  Congress, and demand 
resolutions to drug policies they  feel inhibit learning. There are 
approximately 250  chapters of the SSDP throughout the country.

Campuses have worked with the SSDP to take action to provide money 
for students who have been barred from financial aid by the revised 
Higher Education Act. Since 1998, Yale University, Amherst College, 
Swarthmore College and Western Washington University have provided 
scholarships to students on their campuses with drug convictions. 
Last month, University of California, Berkeley became the fifth 
school to have their student government approve this kind of scholarship.

"The student government is doing what is necessary to provide the 
means to an education for students in need," said David Israel, a 
senator on UC Berkeley's student government who sponsored the bill 
that created the scholarship, in a prepared statement.

While CSUN does not have a SSDP chapter on campus, Associated 
Students General Manager David Crandall said it would not be outside 
of the realm of possibility for A.S. to consider a scholarship for 
students with drug convictions, though no one has proposed the idea 
yet. The Matador Involvement Center, the institution in charge of the 
clubs and organizations on campus, has no record of anyone trying to 
start a SSDP chapter on campus.

The Higher Education Act was supposed to be revisited by Congress 
within five to seven years of its original approval in 1998. Nine 
years have passed since the penalty to drug convicted college 
students was added to the act, something that Krane said he hopes 
will change when Congress reviews the Higher Education Act later this 
summer. With the current leadership in both the House of 
Representatives and the Senate, Krane said that the SSDP is 
optimistic that these counterproductive policies will not stand in 
the way of the pursuit of education after Congress revisits the act.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman