Yale Drug Offenders to Keep Aid

April 12 -- Under federal law, college students with drug convictions are denied financial aid bankrolled by taxpayers. But Yale University students who run on the wrong side of the drug laws will now get a helping hand.

Yale is the fourth and most prestigious college so far to announce it will provide its own assistance for students who lose federal financial aid because of drug-related offenses. Hampshire College, Swarthmore College and Western Washington University have already adopted similar guidelines.

The federal law at issue, a rallying point for angry student groups in the last few years, denies all or partial aid for students convicted of offenses involving drug possession or sales. Penalties are extended for multiple offenses and are harsher for dealing drugs than for drug use.

Students may shorten the penalty by completing a rehabilitation program and passing two drug tests.

"The main thinking was that federal taxpayer dollars that come out of the pockets of many people who never had the chance to go to college shouldn't have to pay for the college educations of people who use, abuse or sell illegal narcotics," said Seth Becker, press secretary for U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., sponsor of the legislation.

Helping Students Stay in School, Get Help

Under Yale's new policy, students who qualify for federal assistance but lose it because of a drug possession conviction can receive temporary aid to stay enrolled in school while also completing a rehabilitation program provided by the university.

Tom Conroy, a Yale spokesman, said the university's move was not an implicit statement of disagreement with the federal law, but an assurance that students who lose aid and face the often prohibitive expense of a private rehabilitation program will be able to stay in school.

"One of the central aims of the federal law is to encourage students to seek rehabilitation," he said. "Certainly, that's what the Yale policy does."

So far, no Yale student has been penalized for a drug conviction, but student groups who lobbied for the policy change hailed the administration's move. In itself, the school's action shows the flaws of the federal law, said Andrew Allison, a Yale sophomore from Scarsdale, N.Y.