WHAT PARENTS SHOULD ASK

AND EXPECT OF A COLLEGE

Don’t assume safety and responsibility are part of the package!

by Sandra S. Bennett, Drug Watch Oregon

Ms. Bennett’s son Garrett was a model student and athlete who died at the University of Oregon following the use of cocaine.

During the era of the Viet Nam War, the legal drinking age was lowered to 18 in response to draftees who argued that, if they were old enough to die for their country, they were old enough to vote and consume alcohol.

It eventually became apparent that most 18 year olds were not mature enough to drink responsibly and it was decided to split the legal age, making it 18 for voting and legal purposes, and 21 for alcohol consumption. Emancipation, however, extends to the university student in a highly selected manner. For example, until age 24, a university student is not eligible for some student loans if he or she has received any financial aid from parents or relatives during the previous two years. This could include a month-long visit during the summer. It would seem then, that the legal age for certain student loans is really 24.

This confusing "sometimes you are, sometimes you aren’t" status has created a bizarre situation where some high school students and most college students have many legal rights of adults but few of the responsibilities. University administrators claim all students 18 and over are legal adults and therefore, the university has no responsibility to play "parent" to them. This means, to quote a university administrator, that "students are supposed to be responsible and know how to act when they get here, and what they do once they’re here is their own affair - we’re not responsible for their private lives."

College student violence is escalating and school administrators acknowledge that it is directly related to the increased use of alcohol and other drugs. Yet, inherent to the problem are the lack of specific guidelines and statements of what will and will not be tolerated by the university.

The schools do not want to be held accountable nor do they want the publicity - it’s bad for enrollment - so they have become willing accomplices in keeping the tragedy of campus crime and violence from the public. Their first priority is not educating our children but keeping the schools full and their jobs secure.

By abdicating any responsibility for acceptable student behavior, campus administrators see students primarily as economic assets. This lack of "duty to care" places all students at risk, but in particular those leaving home for the first time. For instance, there is no adult supervision in most of the student housing. A student Resident Assistant (RA) is all that stands between civility and mayhem, and all too frequently, mayhem wins out. Standards and values, and thus the "norms" of student life, have been left to the students. It is the revelers and bullies whose voices are the loudest (much as in William Golding’s "Lord of the Flies,") who end up making the rules of the student society.

The average number of years to graduate from the University of Oregon, says President Myles Brand, is six. Our children, school administrators say, are taking longer because they are learning "social skills." Most of us believe we sent our children to college to continue their education, not to learn how to "party hearty." It should escape no one’s notice that creating a milieu where matriculation takes six years instead of four means an increased enrollment of nearly 30 percent. A full- time student, paying full tuition, may take from 12 to 21 units per semester. If that student takes 12 or fewer units, it conceivably allows for another student. The income from tuition is doubled, but the class hours are nearly the same.

Sadly, it is economically in the best interest of the school to create an environment in which the student fails to graduate in four years. Encouraging a "party" environment is one way to assure the five and six-year student.

Colleges can require all sororities and fraternities to have mature, non-student, live-in personnel. They can require that all recommended student housing meet basic fire, health, and safety codes and be inspected on a quarterly basis. They can return to non-coed residence halls and provide some semblance of security for the students who live there. They can be explicit about allowing no use of illegal drugs and no illegal use of legal drugs. They can refuse to allow campus events sponsored by the alcohol or tobacco industries, or which are connected with drug use or drug users. With such standards, colleges and universities can enforce a code of student behavior by expulsion, if necessary. This might return campus environments to ones where learning is fostered and anti-social behavior is not tolerated.