Va. Tech to Begin Notifying Parents

Police Enlisted in Effort to Use Federal Law to Curtail Drinking, Drug use by Students

By Jacqueline L. Salmon

Washington Post Staff Writer

Virginia Tech, the Blacksburg university where two students died in alcohol-related incidents last year, has become the first major college in the state to make use of new federal legislation allowing schools to notify parents of illegal drinking and drug use by their children.

The policy, which takes effect in the spring, means that parents of underage students caught using alcohol or drugs on campus -- or even in the bars and fraternities that cluster just off the school property -- will be alerted if the students are suspended or expelled by the university's judicial system.

'We couldn't have done this before Congress passed the [amendment to the Higher Education Act I " said Tech spokesman Lawrence G. Hincker.

That new law, which President Clinton signed in September, was sparked by outrage over the alcohol-- related deaths last fall of five students on Virginia campuses, two of them at Virginia Tech.

The legislation relaxes a federal privacy law that for two decades prohibited universities from disclosing their records on students. The legislation allows institutions to give information to parents about drug or alcohol abuse by students under age 21.

Three other colleges in Virginia enacted parental notification policies before the law took effect -- some by asking students to sign voluntary waivers -- and a number of other schools in the Washington area are reexamining their policies.

In the Washington area, George mason University began notifying parents this fall when an underage student is caught twice in possession of alcohol or if the first alcohol or drug-related offense is major -- for example, if alcohol use sends a student to the hospital. University spokeswoman Patty Snelling said the school enacted its policy before the federal law changed because officials expected it would be passed.

So far, she said, the university has notified six parents of their children's alcohol use and has expelled seven students from campus housing for alcohol violations.

Radford University in Radford enacted a parental notification policy this fall, and the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg has had a parental notification Policy in place for several years.

But Virginia Tech appears to be the first to forge a partnership with the local police, who will notify the school if students are caught off campus with alcohol or drugs. Students will face disciplinary penalties through the school as well as through the local courts.

Off-campus drinking violations would be treated as "the same thing as standing in a dormitory and being caught with a beer in your hand if you're under 21," said Hincker.

Jeffrey Levy, of Alexandria, whose 20-year-old son Jonathan, a student at Radford, was killed last year in an alcohol-related accident, said that - Virginia Tech's policy, while an improvement, still wasn't stringent enough.

"There's still no policy or anything against getting drunk at all," Levy said. "If you're just drunk and they didn't catch you consuming or procuring [alcohol], they're not going to do anything about it."

Two universities in the District are studying their parental notification policies. Gail S. Hanson, American University's vice president of student services, has begun meeting with student groups to review the school's alcohol and parental notification procedure.

George Washington University's new 12-member Task Force on Alcohol Abuse began meeting this week and will examine the school's current parental-notification policy, which allows school officials to contact a parent only if a student's life is in danger, said Linda Donnels, dean of students.

The schools expect to reach decisions by next semester.