Sure, click on the image.Agence-Vleeptron Presse has it on good authority that the following Letter to the Editor will indeed be published by The Diamondback, the student newspaper at the University of Maryland in College Park. I just can't find it on their on-line edition yet.
But here it is! Read it on Vleeptron first, hot off the keyboard!
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Letters to the Editor
The Diamondback
The University of Maryland
To the Editor:
The headline "Job Security at Risk if RAs Bow to SSDP Pressure" (9 October) gets the truth of this situation backwards.
No pressure is coming from Students for Sensible Drug Policy. The heavy-handed blackmail is all from Resident Life and the university administration, which threatens to fire a Resident Assistant for failing to destroy the college career of a student smoking marijuana in the dorm.
SSDP is simply asking RAs, in an open and straight-up way, to act like humans and fellow students rather than like fascist robots, and is particularly asking RAs to do unto marijuana smokers as they already do unto alcohol drinkers -- that is, ignore non-disruptive dorm use of marijuana as they generally overlook non-disruptive dorm use of alcohol.
Which substance merits a nod and a wink, and which substance deserves the "death penalty"?
The church alliance homeless shelter at which I volunteer will soon open for the winter. By a long shot, the chief reason our guests seek a safe, warm night's sleep and a hot meal is chronic alcoholism. After that come untreated psychiatric illness, heroin addiction, and domestic abuse (usually caused by alcohol abuse).
No one is homeless because of marijuana. No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose. It's a medically inoccuous substance.
Marijuana becomes dangerous when an arrest leads to the loss of college financial aid or the lifelong stigma that accompanies a criminal record.
And a wise and decent RA can, as SSDP suggests, choose not to initiate those life-disrupting dangers.
Robert Merkin
Northampton Massachusetts
The Diamondback
daily student newspaper, University of Maryland @ College Park
Friday 5 October 2007
SSDP: use discretion
Yesterday, The Diamondback reported that Students for Sensible Drug Policy is "asking resident assistants not to immediately call police or write students up if they smell or suspect drug use" ("With no-go on ResLife, SSDP targets RAs," Oct. 4). Varied misconceptions about our motives have been the largest contributors to the hindrance of our progress toward the ultimate goal of more reasonable and fair punishments for students caught with marijuana. I'd like to briefly clarify that the terminology in the article may have suggested a different goal than what we are aiming for.
According to the Department of Resident Life, RAs do have the discretion to refrain from calling the police, and our letter to the RAs simply encouraged them to exercise that discretion. However, our intent was not to encourage RAs to break university policy and risk losing their jobs by refusing to write students up.
That said, I wouldn't be surprised if RAs with good consciences begin to lose their sense of smell, given the overly harsh penalties the university imposes upon students caught with small amounts of marijuana. SSDP will continue to do everything in our power to insert some sensibility into our university drug policies.
The full text of the letter is available for any and all interested parties at http://www.ssdpterps.net.
Stacia Cosner
Junior
Communication
President, Students for Sensible Drug Policy
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The Diamondback
student newspaper of the University of Maryland
Tuesday 9 October 2007
Job security at risk
if RAs bow to SSDP pressure
by Nathan Cohen
cohendbk@gmail.com
Resident Life officials responded to a student organization's efforts to lobby Resident Assistants to use discretion in reporting marijuana use in dorms, telling RAs they are barred from deciding whether or not to call police over drug use.
Several RAs in North Campus said they ignored Resident Life's e-mailed warning, which came last week after Students for a Sensible Drug Policy began hand-delivering its letter to RAs last month. The letter urged RAs to consider what they said are unfair consequences students face when police are called to investigate drug use.
But RAs said the fact that they ignored Resident Life's letter doesn't mean they endorse SSDP's position, which questions why Resident Life is willing to expel students from housing for a single marijuana violation but rarely does so for alcohol use. Some said they call police because they fear losing their jobs if they don't while others said students have a responsibility to adhere to policy.
"While there is a human aspect to it, [residents] should know the rules," said Aja Johnson, a senior and LaPlata Hall RA. "If they're personally invested [in their education], they shouldn't want to grab attention."
Both the Residence Halls Association and the Student Government Association approved resolutions last year that urged administrators to punish both alcohol and marijuana as B-level -- or less serious -- violations. Resident Life administrators declined to change the policy last semester, citing fears that guns and drug dealers would proliferate university-run student housing if penalties were relaxed.
But RAs interviewed for this story, many of whom were granted anonymity because they feared reprisal from Resident Life for speaking to reporters without permission, said they are already using discretion when it comes to marijuana -- whether they supported SSDP or not.
"Marijuana is illegal, but I overlook some of the kids" if they're not disturbing anything, said an Easton Hall RA.
Resident Life officials require RAs to call police each time they suspect drug use.
Although some RAs said they disagree with Resident Life's policy, they said they still feel obligated to call police if they suspect marijuana use.
"Our own personal convictions are well, marijuana's not like a drug, it grows and it's not a big deal," an anonymous LaPlata RA said. "A lot of RAs believe that, but we still have to follow our job."
Many said they fear being fired.
"I don't know what [Resident Life] would do, but I'm afraid of being reported," said the Easton RA.
After SSDP began distributing the warning letters, North Campus Resident Life officials began to send out letters aimed at gutting SSDP's efforts, several RAs said.
"This is not an area where you have any discretion," says the letter, which was provided by a North Campus RA. "There is always the potential that students may be high on other types of drugs and we do not want you to inadvertently interfere with a police investigation or damage police evidence."
Over the summer, the department lightened the policy and gave community directors the ability to suspend students from housing instead in cases where "small amounts" of marijuana were found.
That amount, however, hasn't been defined, and Resident Life administrators will deal with it on a case by case basis.
Several RAs said that smelling marijuana would prompt an immediate call to police. The Easton RA said a concern for her was getting in trouble because someone else might report it to police before the RA did. By not writing up the incident and reporting it to police, that RA would get in trouble.
"I have to" call police," she said. "But it's difficult. I don't really have a problem [with marijuana]."
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