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Campus Change Campaign Grassroots Guide
As young people, we’ll have to live with the implications and consequences of drug policies for
the rest of our lives. That’s why it’s up to us to create more sensible and effective ways to deal
with the real and complex issues of drug abuse and addiction. As students on college campuses,
we have a unique opportunity to take the lead in formulating and enacting alternative drug
policies. With a broad network of students on college campuses across the country
implementing an array of different policies, we have the chance to see what actually works and
what doesn’t.
So, what is sensible campus drug policy? The answer to this question will vary from college to
college, depending on the different situations and environments students face. But we definitely
do know that punitive prohibitionist policies cause much more harm than they prevent. And we
also know that drug education and treatment are much more effective than punishment for people
who have real problems. Institutions of higher education are charged with educating their
students and helping them become responsible and successful adult citizens. Colleges shouldn’t
be in the business of looking for extra reasons to punish students. So at a bare minimum,
suspension, expulsion, and police arrests should be taken off the table. Limited campus drug
prevention resources should be put into making sure that students have access to accurate and
reality-based drug information and education and that all students who need or want drug
treatment are able to get it. A sensible campus drug policy will generally be nonpunitive, will
offer help to all students who want or need it, and will involve students in the process of
formulating and implementing policies that primarily affect us.
This grassroots guide offers suggestions and resources to students who want to change the drug
policies on their own campuses.
I. Surveying the landscape
1) The first thing you’ll need to do is determine the state of drug policy on your campus. You
can do this by accessing your school’s written drug policy in the student handbook or on the
web, or by talking to faculty and staff members. Under federal law (See Appendix I), any
institution of higher education that receives federal funding (and most do) is required to
formulate a campus drug policy and distribute a copy to any student who asks for it. Most of the
time, the written policies are fairly vague, so you’ll probably have to do a bit of additional
investigation. Appendix II contains a list of questions about campus drug policies. Try to
answer as many of them as possible before moving forward.
Once you determine what type of drug policy is in effect on your campus (good, bad, or just
plain ugly), you’ll most likely find yourself working under one of three basic scenarios:
* You need to change a bad campus drug policy. For example:
Students are being expelled from the dorms for first-time drug offenses.
* You need to prevent a proposed bad drug policy from being enacted. For example:
The administration wants to give itself the power to punish students for off-campus behavior.
* You have the opportunity to make a decent drug policy even better. For example:
Students aren’t punished too harshly for drug offenses, but you’d like to make sure they have
access to accurate and reality-based drug education and drug treatment on demand.
2) The next thing you’ll need to do is determine what, specifically, it is that you want to change.
You’ll most likely have a laundry list of grievances, but it probably makes most sense to focus
on one or a few particular policy changes. On the one hand, if you start by asking for a lot right
away, you may be able to successfully negotiate down to a desirable outcome. But on the other
hand, if you start small and achieve a swift victory, you may gain enough momentum to keep
going and make more changes. Ultimately, you’ll have to determine your approach based on
what you and your colleagues think will be most effective on your campus.
3) Once you figure out what it is you’re asking for, you’ll need to find out how the drug policies
are formulated and what the process is for making changes. You’ll need to find out who the
decision-makers are that will ultimately need to be convinced. Do students play a role in the
formulation of the policies? Among the decision-makers, who are already your allies, who
opposes you, and who do you have a chance of convincing?
4) Before launching your campus change campaign, you should also take some time to evaluate
the resources initially available to you. Are you already working within the context of a strong
student organization? Do you have allies on the student government? Are there friendly faculty
or staff members who are in a position to help you? Do you have a good relationship with any
potential monetary donors to your efforts? Do you or any of your colleagues have skills in
graphic design, media relations, writing, or public speaking that you can make use of? What
resources would be helpful that you don’t yet have access to? Answering such questions should
help you determine the structure of your campaign.
II. Changing a bad campus drug policy or counteracting a proposed bad policy
The methods for changing existing bad policies and counteracting proposed bad polices are very
similar, but there are some differences. In the former case, there’s an established policy you’re
working against, so it may be difficult to get decision-makers to agree to stop doing things in the
way they’re familiar with. However, you’ll also have the advantage of being able to share the
stories of real students who have been negatively affected by the existing policies. In the latter
case, you’ll have a good chance of stopping the policy from being enacted since it isn’t set in
stone yet. But you also won’t have the advantage of being able to put a face on the potential
negative effects of the policy.
Making the original request for policy change:
If you determine your campus drug policies are intolerable, the next thing you should do is meet
with the individuals responsible for formulating policies to air your grievances and make an
honest effort to negotiate a desirable outcome. Making the original ask is important because 1)
there’s a chance the decision-makers will agree to the demands and you’ll save yourself the
trouble of having to organize a large and involved campaign, 2) you’ll gain credibility among the
general public for making a good faith effort, and 3) when you sit down with decision-makers
and they deny your request, you can make them aware of parts of your ambitious campaign plan
and perhaps scare them into trying to negotiate a compromise with you right then and there.
If this effort turns out to be unfruitful, in which case you shouldn’t be surprised or discouraged,
it’ll time to start organizing a campaign.
Components of a successful campus change campaign:
There are several components of a successful campaign. There’s no specific order in which
you’ll need to utilize any of these tasks, and you will likely use many of them simultaneously.
But you should think strategically about which elements will work best and when. Depending on
how many supporters you have, you’ll want to delegate specific responsibilities to certain
people. For example, one person can be a media spokesperson while another can handle
advertising, and yet another can be the person who negotiates directly with decision-makers. If
you have enough people, you can even form committees that are responsible for each of the
campaign components.
Building a coalition for change - Organizing a campaign is a lot of work, and you won’t be able
to do it all by yourself. You’re going to need to determine who agrees with you enough to
devote time and resources to helping out. (You’ll also need to find out who will actively oppose
you and who will sit on the fence.)
One of the first things you should do is reach out to student organizations on campus that might
be willing to help out with the campaign. These are students who are already active on campus;
some of them probably have experience organizing similar campaigns. Attend their meetings
and ask if you can take five minutes to discuss the problems associated with the policies and how
interested individuals can help out with the campaign. Besides getting individual student
members to work on the campaign, you should also try to get the organizations to officially
endorse the policy changes you want to make, since it will boost your campaign’s authority and
effectiveness to have a large, diverse list of supporters. It’s also helpful to reach out beyond
campus to local and statewide organizations, such as ACLU chapters. These groups can bring
credibility and resources to the campaign that you wouldn’t otherwise have. You can also ask
your professors if they’ll let you make a quick announcement at the beginning or end of classes.
Yet another way to identify your supporters is to hold a community forum for people to share
their thoughts on the campus’s drug policies.
Other influential individuals you’ll want to reach out to include alumni, trustees, donors, state
and local elected officials, and parents.
Additional resources:
Book – Roberts, Joan. Alliances, Coalitions and Partnerships: Building Collaborative
Organizations. New Society Publishers, 2004.
Website – http://www.youngpeoplefor.org/pdf/COALITION_BUILDING_LBB.PDF or
http://www.aaup.org/Issues/Contingent/CEW/cewtips.htm
Expert – Micah Daigle – micah@ssdp.org
Advertising – To win over the campus community, you’re going to have to let them know what
the issues are and why they should agree with you. One of the early things you should do is
flood the campus with some eye-catching flyers that clearly and concisely convey the importance
of policy change. The flyers should include contact information so that people who want to get
involved with the campaign can find out more. You might want to include your phone number
and e-mail address, a website URL, or the time and date of a meeting that people can go to.
Good places to hang up flyers include academic buildings, dorms, the student union, and dining
halls (put make sure you check any relevant campus rules first). Smaller, quarter-page flyers are
also helpful, as they can be easily passed out at events, in classes, or on the campus green. There
are editable sample flyers on the SSDP website.
Additional resources:
Website – http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/1797/flyer.htm
Expert – Micah Daigle – micah@ssdp.org
Using the Internet – While designing a website isn’t the simplest thing to do, it’s getting easier
and easier all the time. In fact, there are probably other students on campus who are web design
experts and are willing to help you out for free. Just ask around, especially among computer
science students. On your website, you’ll want to have concise information about what the
issues are and why change is necessary. On the front page, there should be a form that allows
interested people sign up to receive e-mail announcements about the campaign. Having
electronic copies of your flyers and handouts on the website will enable other students to print
and distribute them around campus independently of you. Make sure to have information for the
members of the media such as press releases and news advisories. Of course, you’ll also want to
display your contact information (such as phone number and e-mail) on the website so that
reporters, students, and other interested individuals can get in touch with you.
Another easy and effective way to use the Internet to bolster your campaign is to set up
individual profiles and/or groups on the websites www.facebook.com and www.myspace.com.
Facebook and MySpace are social networking sites that are very popular with college students
(but you already know that). By setting up an account on each site and building large friend lists,
you’ll be able to distribute campaign updates and action alerts to hundreds or thousands of
people with the click of a button. Facebook also allows you to purchase inexpensive ads (called
“flyers”) that are displayed to other students from your school. It only costs a few dollars to
make sure that thousands of students at your school see your ad, making this is a great way to
reach out to other students on your campus with little effort and expense.
Additional resources:
Website – http://www.scn.org/%7Ealf1701/activism.html
Expert – Justin Holmes – justin@ssdp.org
Building a list – Developing a list of supporters and their contact information is one of the most
important things you can do to bolster your campaign’s effectiveness. When you have a
comprehensive electronic list of your supporters, you’ll be able to easily mobilize them when it’s
time to act. A good way to build your list is to get people to sign petitions that ask them to put
down their e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and screen names. You can also incorporate a sign
up form on your campaign’s website, if you have one. When it comes time to mobilize people,
you’ll be able to send out a blast e-mail that concisely outlines what you need them to do and
when you need them to do it. If you’re organizing a large rally or protest, you can also put
together a “flash mob,” which involves sending out a mass text message to all your supporters’
cell phones right before you want them to gather. If you have hundreds or thousands of folks on
your list, even a very small response rate can result in lots of people showing up. Another way
to bring lots of people together in a short time is to send instant messages to all the supporters
you have screen names for. There are editable sample petitions on the SSDP website.
Additional resources:
Website - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob
Working with the media - Generating press coverage is one of the easiest and most effective
ways to put pressure on decision-makers. Placing articles in on-campus publications is helpful
because your potential supporters and targets will most likely read them. But make sure to reach
out to off-campus media as well. University administrators will be much more likely to be
responsive to your campaign if influential individuals like trustees, state legislators, and alumni
hear about what’s going on through the major media. You can also use the opinion pages of
newspapers to raise awareness about what you’re doing. Writing letters to the editor is an
especially easy and effective way to score coverage for your campaign. You should also reach
out to newspaper columnists and editorial boards, especially those at your campus paper, and
urge them to write about the need to change your school’s drug policy. There are editable
sample letters to the editor and press releases on the SSDP website. Also be sure to read our
media relations guide at http://www.ssdp.org/resources/media.shtml
Additional resources:
Book – Salzman, Jason. Making the News. Westview Press, 2003.
Website – http://www.youngpeoplefor.org/pdf/MEDIA_MESSAGE_LBB.PDF or
http://www.spinproject.org/
Expert - Tom Angell – tom@ssdp.org
Lobbying for change – A major goal of your campaign is to make students’ voices heard by the
decision-makers that need to hear them. While many students will agree with your position,
most of them will probably feel too busy to contribute lots of time and energy to the campaign.
Thus, you’ll need to make it as easy as possible for them to speak out and send messages to the
decision-makers responsible for setting the campus drug policies. This tactic is called grassroots
lobbying, and it is extremely effective in amplifying your concerns.
One grassroots lobbying technique is to organize a phone slam, which is intended to flood
decision-makers offices’ with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of phone calls. You can
make this happen by printing thousands of quarter-page flyers that have phone numbers and
sample scripts on them. You can distribute these by setting up tables in a high-traffic area of
campus, such as the student union or the green. There are editable sample phone scripts on the
SSDP website.
Another, more expensive but more visible, way to send the message that you have lots of
students on your side is to print lots of postcards, get them signed, and deliver them to decision-
makers’ offices. On one side of the cards, print a simple message about why policies need to be
changed, and on the other put some sort of eye-catching graphic. You can either have students
mail the postcards themselves, or you can collect all the postcards and periodically deliver stacks
to the offices yourself. The second method is preferable for a number of reasons. By collecting
the cards, you know that they’ll actually get delivered, whereas individual students might
otherwise forget to drop them in the mailbox. You’ll also be able to collect students’ names and
contact information from the cards you collect, which will help you build a list of supporters you
can mobilize later. This method also saves money on postage, since you’ll be personally hand-
delivering the cards to offices.
Yet another way to make sure decision-makers are getting the message that students demand
change is to flood their e-mail inboxes. You can either distribute administrators’ e-mail
addresses and ask students to draft their own messages and send individual e-mails, or you can
set up an online action alert center where students simply enter in their contact information and
e-mail messages are automatically generated. Get in touch with the SSDP National Headquarters
for more information about the second option.
However you decide to contact decision-makers, you’re going to need to be smart in deciding
who you contact and how you do it. The drug policies on your campus are most likely set and
changed by a committee of people. Does it make most sense to spread the messages out between
all of them? Do you want to focus on just a few of your opponents or fence sitters? Could
overwhelming a particular decision-maker with messages from students be annoying to the point
that it will make him or her less likely to support your efforts?
Additional resources:
Website – http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/9529.html
Expert – Tom Angell – tom@ssdp.org
Personal stories – Getting people who have been directly affected by your school’s drug
policies to come forward and share their stories is a great way to clearly demonstrate the need for
change. Once other students, faculty, and decision-makers see that the policies are having
disastrous effects on real people, they’ll be much more likely to support your campaign. Putting
a face on the issue is also helpful for generating media coverage. However, it’s absolutely
critical that you make sure you have the right poster-children who send the right messages about
why the policies need to be changed. Shining the spotlight on someone who has a less-than-
sympathetic story can severely impede your ability to convince people to get involved with the
campaign.
Additional resources:
Expert – Marisa Garcia – iiimarisaiii@aol.com
Working with student and faculty governments – One easy and effective way to demonstrate
the student body’s opposition to bad campus drug policies is to have your student government
pass a resolution calling for reform. This will not only send a message to decision-makers, but it
is likely to generate media interest as well. If you can’t seem to get the student government on
your side right away, a long-term strategy is to take over the body by running a slate of
candidates on a students’ rights platform. If you can also get the faculty government to pass a
resolution calling for policy change, it is sure to get decision-makers’ attention. A great guide to
navigating student and faculty governments can be found at
http://www.raiseyourvoice.com/sgendorse.html. There are editable sample resolutions on the
SSDP website.
Additional resources:
Website – American Student Government Association - http://www.asgaonline.com/
Expert – Justin Holmes – justin@ssdp.org
Demonstrating student support through the initiative/referendum process – Many colleges
allow student bodies to support or oppose policies by voting on questions on student government
election ballots. The processes for placing questions on ballots vary from campus to campus, but
usually questions can be placed through an act of the student government (referendum) or when
a certain number of students sign a petition (initiative). Using this tactic is actually like running
two successive campaigns. First, you have to work to get the question on the ballot (by lobbying
the student government or by organizing a successful signature gathering effort). Then, once the
question is placed on the ballot, making sure it passes involves public education campaigning
and a get out the vote effort.
The process for getting a question on the ballot by way of referendum is usually similar to the
process for navigating any resolution through a student government. See the previous section for
tips on lobbying student governments. Signature gathering for an initiative usually involves a lot
of tabling, going door-to-door in the dorms (if it’s allowed on campus), and talking to people at
other organizations’ meetings and events.
Campaigning for the question once it is placed on the ballot is a lot like general public education,
but with a very focused goal: getting other students to vote “yes” (or “no,” depending on the
wording of the question). Campaigning on campus for an initiative or referendum involves lots
of advertising (flyering, chalking, hanging banners, etc), tabling, coalition building (getting other
groups and student government candidates to publicly endorse your position), media outreach,
and potentially some fundraising.
In the lead up to election day, you’re going to need to organize a comprehensive get out the vote
effort to make sure you win. Of course, our issues are very popular with most college students
and your ballot question will probably have a good chance of passing all on its own, but you
don’t want to leave anything to chance since a loss would be extremely embarrassing and would
do near-irreparable damage to your policy change efforts. In the days before election day, you
should divide up the people working on your campaign and have them set up shop on the most
heavily-trafficked spots on campus, equipped with quarter-page flyers that concisely explain the
issue, why your position is the right one, and where and how they can vote on the question. You
should also hang up flyers and signs reminding students that the election is coming up and to
make sure to vote (hopefully, the right way).
Many colleges allow students to participate in student government elections by voting online. If
your school does this, having a large e-mail or screen name list is extremely helpful (which is
one reason it’s always a good idea to collect e-mail addresses and screen names when you’re
tabling or gathering signatures for an initiative). On the day of the election, you should send an
e-mail to all your supporters, asking them to make sure to vote by clicking on the conveniently-
included link to the school’s election page. Instant messaging is also helpful for getting out the
vote online. You can write a few short sentences on why it’s important to vote the right way in
the election (making sure to include a link to the online voting system) and IM it to all the screen
name contacts you’ve collected. Make sure to also include a line at the end asking supporters to
copy and paste the IM message to everyone on their own buddy lists, which will help you reach
many more students than the ones already in your network. It’s also a good idea to send
messages to your friends on Facebook and MySpace, and to think about taking advantage of the
inexpensive “flyers” advertising feature that Facebook offers (which is discussed in the Internet
section of this guide).
Of course, winning the vote won’t be the end of your policy change campaign if your initiative
or referendum is nonbinding (simply expressing the student body’s position and not actually
changing policy). If that’s the case, you’re going to need to do follow-up by lobbying the
actually decision-makers to implement the student body’s will and make a policy change.
Additional resources:
Expert – Tom Angell – tom@ssdp.org
Taking direct action – If all bureaucratic avenues for airing your concerns have been exhausted
and you still haven’t been able to foster policy change, it might be time to take direct action.
Direct action will certainly get the attention of decision-makers and will most likely get the
media interested. Direct action can take many forms, including rallies, protests, and even
nonviolent civil disobedience. Holding a large rally with hundreds of students, signs, and
chanting is a particularly good way to get the media’s attention because it effectively
demonstrates your coalition’s power and influence. Remember, the goal of direct action is to
bring you back to the negotiation stage so you can broker a deal for change. You shouldn’t just
protest for the sake of protesting.
Additional resources:
Website - http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?list=type&type=71
Expert – Hilary McQuie – hilary@riseup.net
Brokering a deal for change - Hopefully your campaign will be successful and you’ll be able to
get the decision-makers to agree to meet you at the negotiating table. Obviously, you’ll want all
of your demands to be fully met, but it’s more likely that you’ll need to compromise and meet
the decision-makers somewhere in the middle. You’re going to have to be careful to not let them
take advantage of you and trick you into agreeing to something you don’t really want. You’ll
also have to make sure you’re accurately portraying and defending the concerns of the larger
coalition you are representing. Don’t sign off on a deal that will alienate any part of your
coalition, unless you’ve thoughtfully considered the consequences of doing so and decided that
the deal in front of you is still worth it. In any case, you’ll want to start by asking for exactly
what you want. Then, if necessary, you can work your way down to a mutually acceptable
compromise.
Additional resources:
Website - http://web.cba.neu.edu/%7Eewertheim/interper/negot3.htm
Expert – Scarlett Swerdlow – scarlett.swerdlow@gmail.com
Taking over the judicial system – One long-term way to reduce the harm associated with your
campus’s policies while they remain on the books is to stack the student disciplinary boards with
sympathetic individuals. This way, you can make sure that defendants are being treated fairly.
If you want to be extra-radical, you can ask your supportive judicial board members to refuse
convicting anyone of campus drug policy violations because of the unnecessarily harsh
punishments that are usually doled out.
Additional resources:
Website - http://www.lasalle.edu/%7Echapman/j-bd.htm
Each of the many above tactics is effective in its own way. But most likely, you won’t find it
necessary to use all of them over the course of your campaign. Instead, you should take time to
consider which particular combination of tactics will be most effective on your campus in light
of the unique policy situation you’re facing and the resources you have available to you. Please
make use of the external resources we’ve provided references to here, and don’t hesitate to call
the SSDP National Headquarters with any questions you have over the course of planning or
carrying out your campaign.
III. Making a decent drug policy even better
If your campus’s drug policy is already fairly decent, you have a real opportunity to campaign
for bold and cutting-edge reforms, using your campus as a laboratory for formulating truly
sensible drug policies. As young people, we’re going to be experiencing the harms of the Drug
War for years to come. So it’s up to us to determine how to more effectively deal with the
problems associated with drug abuse and addiction in the future. While most campuses will have
some harmful and counterproductive drug policies that need to be changed, students should take
the opportunity to construct a positive vision for effective drug policy whenever possible. If
your campus is already handling drug issues in a relatively practical and fair manner, you should
think about trying to influence decision-makers to enact some above-and-beyond measures.
The campaign tactics for enacting cutting-edge sensible drug polices are similar to those for
counteracting bad policies. But since you’ll be treading in largely uncharted waters, the methods
for moving forward with proactive campaigns are even less easily translated into a step-by-step
guide than are those for reactive campaigns intended to oppose bad policies.
Here are a few examples of sensible campus drug policy measures you might want to try
implementing at your school:
Start a drug resource center – One reason that so many young people get into trouble with
drug abuse and addiction is that they don’t have accurate information about the effects of drugs.
For too long, misinformation and scare tactics have been fed to young people through misguided
programs like D.A.R.E. But now it’s time to take matters into our own hands to make sure that
our peers have access to accurate, science-based facts about drugs. Students can only be
expected to make safe and sensible decisions when they have adequate information and
resources available to them, but this is too often not the case. Too many students have not
researched, and thus do not adequately understand, the risks associated with the drugs they’ve
taken or are planning to take.
You can start a drug resource center (DRC) on campus, aimed at taking initiative and making
sure our peers have the best information available. Ideally, the DRC will be student-led, in
partnership with the university. Operating under a harm reduction philosophy, the DRC should
work to minimize the negative impacts of both licit and illicit drug use on individuals and the
entire community. The goal should be to provide knowledge about drugs, not to promote drug
use. Hopefully, you swill have your volunteers attend trainings on harm reduction, drug effects,
and communications techniques. The DRC should house a library of reference materials., and
depending on the nature of the questions asked, visitors can be directed to books, scholarly
journal articles, government reports, web sites, or cards or pamphlets to take home. Students
who come to the DRC because they feel they have problems with drugs can be given a list of
treatment providers or counselors in the area, both on- and off-campus. One SSDP chapter
started a drug resource center with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, while
another founded one in cooperation with their university’s Department of Health Education.
Expand treatment and counseling - Perhaps your school isn’t so harsh about cracking down on
students caught with drugs on campus. But are they actually dealing with drug issues in a
sensible way, or are they just turning a blind eye to potential problems? You may want to work
to expand quality treatment and counseling services for all students who request them. This
campaign will mean that you’ll be asking your school to invest significant monetary resources
into implementing your idea, which is always a hard sell to make to frugal administrators.
Make scholarships available for HEA Aid Elimination Penalty victims – Nearly 200,000
students around the country have already been stripped of their financial aid simply because they
have drug convictions. SSDP has been working hard to repeal the Higher Education Act (HEA)
Aid Elimination Penalty since its inception, and despite our successfully scaling back the law in
2006, we still have a lot of work to do before we can fully repeal it. In the meantime, you can
help keep affected students in school while the law remains on the books. So far, four schools –
Yale University, Hampshire College, Swarthmore College, and Western Washington University
– have established scholarship funds that use school money to replace students’ financial aid lost
to the penalty.
Establish a safe ride program – Each year, more than 2.1 million students drive while under
the influence of alcohol. To address this alarming reality, you might want to ask your college to
offer a safe ride program that provides transportation for inebriated students who would
otherwise drive while intoxicated. This is another above-and-beyond measure that could end up
costing a lot of money. To make the program work, you’ll need one or a few dedicated vehicles
and committed sober drivers on call. While this may seem like an ambitious idea, more and
more schools around the country are beginning to enact safe ride programs.
IV. General Campaign Organizing Resources
Books:
Bobo, Kim; Kendall, Jackie & Max, Steve. Organizing for Social Change (3rd Edition). Seven
Locks Press, 2001.
Websites:
Campus Action - http://www.campusaction.net/
Young People For: http://www.youngpeoplefor.org/resources/blackbooks/
Greenpeace - http://www.greenpeace.org.au/getactive/happen/nvda.html
Americans for Safe Access - http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2707
APPENDIX I: Limitations and opportunities from federal, state, and local laws
As you’re campaigning to change your campus’s drug policies, you should be aware of various
federal, state, and local laws governing how colleges deal with drug use. This way, you’ll be
able to make sure you’re not asking the school to do anything that it is legally unable to do.
For example, the Drug-Free Schools and Campuses Regulations or DFSCR (34 CFR Part 86),
published by the U.S. Department of Education in 1990 pursuant to the Drug-Free Schools and
Communities Act Amendments of 1989, mandates that all colleges receiving federal funding
enact “standards of conduct that clearly prohibit the unlawful possession, use, or distribution of
illicit drugs and alcohol on school property or as part of any school activities.” This means that
you cannot get your school to “legalize” drugs on campus. You can only hope to make sure they
deal with illegal drug use in the most sensible manner possible and not have excessive penalties.
However, this federal law can also work to our advantage. The DFSCR comes in handy when
researching what your school’s drug policy entails. The law requires that schools must provide
“a clear statement that the institution will impose sanctions on students and employees
(consistent with local, state, and federal law), and a description of those sanctions, up to and
including expulsion or termination of employment and referral for prosecution, for violations of
the standards of conduct.” Reading the school’s statement is a good starting place when
determining what your campus’s drug policy looks like and how it needs to be changed.
DFSCR also mandates that schools provide a description of counseling and treatment programs
available to students. This is a good way to find out if students’ needs are adequately being met.
Additionally, the law requires that schools provide a “description of the health risks associated
with the use of illicit drugs and the abuse of alcohol.” If the information they provide seems to
be incorrect or misleading, you might think about working to convince the school to instead
provide accurate and science-based information.
The law further requires colleges to conduct biennial reviews of their programs to determine
effectiveness and implement changes if needed, and to ensure that the sanctions developed are
enforced consistently. If you can obtain documents pertaining to the biennial review, you might
get a good idea of what, in particular, needs to be changed on your campus.
Another federal law that you can use to your advantage is the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of
Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. The Clery Act requires colleges to
keep track of and disclose statistics about crimes committed on and around campuses, including
drug crimes. Visit http://www.securityoncampus.org/crimestats/index.html to find out how to
get crime statistics for your campus.
It’s important to remember that in addition to these federal requirements, there may also be state
or local laws your school must comply with.
APPENDIX II: Questions about your campus drug policy
* What is the punishment for first-time marijuana violations? Second-time? Etc? How do
punishments differ for violations involving other drugs? To what extent are the penalties for
violations involving marijuana or other illegal drugs different from violations involving alcohol?
* What powers do RA's, campus security, administrators, and other school representatives have
to search students' on-campus housing units? Is a warrant necessary? Is probable cause
sufficient for a search? Can dorms be searched based on anonymous tips or mere whims?
* Under which circumstances are students removed from on-campus housing for drug policy
violations?
* Under which circumstances are students suspended or expelled for violating campus drug
policies?
* Under which circumstances are local, state, or federal law enforcement involved when students
are caught violating drug policies? To what extent are these matters handled internally by the
school, so as not to subject students to legal repercussions like state or federal convictions, the
loss of financial aid, and criminal records that follow them for the rest of their lives?
* When are parents notified of students' drug policy violations?
* Under which circumstances are students punished for off-campus infractions?
* Under which circumstances are students subjected to drug testing?
* How are students, parents, faculty, and staff informed of what the school’s drug policy is?
* What is the judicial process for determining guilt and handing down punishment? Do other
students serve as a "jury of peers" in determining guilt? What is the standard of proof for
determining guilt? Can students have legal representation present at drug policy violation
hearings? Are hearings open to the public if the defendant requests it, or are all proceedings
behind closed doors?
* What is the process for appealing campus drug policy violation convictions? Are appeals
decisions made by truly independent entities, or are they made by close affiliates of the bodies
making original determinations of guilt?
* Are drug treatment and counseling made available to students seeking these services? Are
treatment or counseling ever mandated as part of punishment for drug policy violations?
* What kinds of drug education are made available to students? Where does the drug
information come from? Is harm-reduction education made available or are the education
programs abstinence-only?
* If students call campus medical services because they or their friends seem to be overdosing,
does the school notify the police and/or punish them under the campus drug policies, or do they
simply make sure that students get the medical attention they need?
* How many students from your school are arrested for violating drug laws each year? Federal
law mandates that institutions of higher education collect and publish this information. See
http://www.ope.ed.gov/security/Search.asp or http://securityoncampus.org/crimestats/index.html
for more information.
