FAFSA to screen for drugs

New laws crack down on drug users seeking financial aid

Students who use illegal drugs may be in danger of losing their federal financial aid as a result of an amendment to the Higher Education Act.

In September, Congress overwhelmingly passed "The Higher Education Amendments of 1998" which recently have been signed into law by President Bill Clinton. According to "News From the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators," the law reauthorizes the Higher Education Act of 1965 and mainly deals with reforms of financial aid for students, such as a reduction in student loan interest rates.

However, one amendment to the bill states, "A student who has been convicted of any offense under any Federal or State law involving the possession or sale of a controlled substance shall not be eligible to receive any grant, loan, or work assistance under this title."

According to this new legislation text students will be ineligible to receive financial aid for one year after the first offense, two years after the second and an indefinite period after the third. Punishments are more severe for drug dealing.

The amendment, which was sponsored by Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., does allow for students' financial aid to be reinstated early, but only after completion of a drug rehabilitation program and successfully passing two random drug tests, or a reversed conviction.

The aim of supporters of this amendment is to limit access to Financial Aid for students who do not take their studies seriously. They argue that there is only a limited amount of funds for Financial Aid, and it should be given to students who have the same qualifications but differ because they do not have drug convictions.

According to the Auburn Plainsman, Auburn University's student newspaper, the Department of Education is concerned that the law may not be applied fairly to students convicted off-campus or out-of-state, because it is more difficult to track them. In addition, judges already have the power to include suspension of financial aid as part of a student's sentence, but they rarely use it.

Apparently students already receiving financial aid would not be affected by this law, which only applies to financial aid for periods of enrollment beginning after the law was enacted.

According to Oberlin's Acting Director of Financial Aid Brian Lindeman, this law applies to students using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

When students apply for Federal Aid, the Social Security Number on their application is compared with a Department of Justice Database which lists any person convicted of offenses covered by this amendment. If a student's social security number matches one in the database, that student is disqualified from receiving Federal Aid.

When asked if Oberlin students would be affected by this, Lindeman said, "I hope not. I would guess not." He said that prior to his time at Oberlin there was a similar law in which students were disqualified from receiving Federal Pell grants if convicted of drug offenses. He said he didn't run into any of those cases and that he would expect them to be rare.

A large amount of Oberlin students possibly could be affected by this law in the future. Lindeman said he would guess that approximately 65 percent of Oberlin students participate in some sort of Federal Aid Program, whether it is direct aid, a work program or student-parent loans.

One argument against the law is whether or not drug use adversely affects all students. The law only covers Federally funded financial aid. Although the faculty have not discussed how to deal with specific cases, Lindeman said, "I would expect if for some reason we encountered a student who was denied Financial Aid for this reason, we would look at the case individually, but we would want to have a discussion on whether or not to give college aid. We might decide to offer college aid."

Oberlin College does not have a policy similar to the federal one, according to Lindeman. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he said.