Yale to Provide Aid to Student With Past Drug Convictions

Yale is not the first university to do so, but it is the largest and most prestigious.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., proposed the legislation that has caused controversy in academic circles across the nation. The legislation states that students who have drug convictions cannot receive federal grants and loans.

But Souder has said that the intent of the legislation he proposed is not being enforced properly. Seth Becker, Souder's press secretary, said the law was not intended to target students who have been convicted and punished in the past, but those with current offenses.

Becker said Souder is attempting to amend the legislation so that it is enforced as he intended.

The proposed change has not yet been debated on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

A Yale spokeswoman said the university would not make additional comments on the issue.

Becker said the actions of Yale's administration are in accordance with what the representative has been fighting for the last couple of years.

"If (Yale is) giving money to applicants who have been denied aid because of previous drug conviction, well, we're fighting that battle ourselves," Becker said.

"Our original conclusion in writing this provision was that federal money not be used to fund students who (currently) abuse drugs," he said.

But Becker said he does not know whether Yale is giving money to students who have been convicted of drug offenses while attending the school -- something he says would be a bad idea on the school's part.

"If (Yale is) giving money to students who have current convictions, in the abstract, I don't think it's the best way to use the money," he said.

Shirley Ort, UNC director of financial aid and scholarships said the University's administration has never been presented with a situation where a person was denied federal financial aid because of the statute.

"We haven't even had this happen yet," she said. "So far it's just been a policy that we've had in place."

Ort said that the University cannot easily discern whether a student has been convicted on drug charges but that procedures are in place to consider any potential requests for University reimbursement on case-by-case basis.

"We took this issue to the chancellor's committee on scholarships and student aid," she said, adding that the committee then formulated the University's policy on the issue.

Ort said the policy states that if a student were denied federal aid, the office of student aid would first check to see if he or she filled out the form correctly.

She said administrators designed the policy in a manner that allows University officials to consider cases individually if a student indeed had his or her federal aid repealed because of a conviction. After careful consideration, officials would decide whether to give aid from university funds to make up for the lost financial aid, Ort said.

"We didn't want to punish students, but we also didn't want to undercut the legislation."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.