Keeping parents informed

By Colleen Snyder

One good thing about being at college is that parents are far, far away. They can't wake you up in the mornings to get you to go to class. They have no idea if all you eat for dinner is chips and ice cream. And they don't see you stumbling in at 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning, only to spend the remainder of the night puking into your trash can.

Actually, scratch that last part. Now, if you are arrested or cited for driving under the influence, public intoxication or being a minor in possession, some universities are taking it upon themselves to notify parents. Yes, this goes for off-campus student violations as well as dorm violations.

Renowned party school University of California Santa Barbara adopted this new parental notification policy just last year to curb dangerous drinking behaviors on and around campus. Sound illegal? Well, it's not. Arrests and citations fall under the category of public record; all the university is doing is taking it upon itself to make sure your parents see that record. A little sneaky maybe, but not against the law.

And so far, the policy seems to be working - in Santa Barbara at least. Since implementing this policy just this past summer, there have already been more than 130 letters sent out to students' parents to notify them of their child's drunken run-in with the law. Who knows what happens then, but already citations and arrests are down in Isla Vista, the student living community surrounding the Santa Barbara campus.

As you can imagine, Santa Barbara students are anything but happy about this "invasion of privacy," as some have called it. As if the excruciating hangover and possibly even more excruciating time spent in the drunk tank are not enough punishment - now parental wrath must be added to that list. All the price just for having a good time.

As tempted as I am to sympathize with the alcoholic-college student cause, I can't seem to see past the fact that, well, if you end up in the drunk tank - or worse - you probably did pose some kind of danger to yourself. Besides, unless you're in the small minority of Santa Clara students that don't depend on their parents for tuition, rent and food, then your parents have a right to know what you're doing with their money.

Santa Clara's current policy on notifying parents of alcohol and drug violations states that parents or legal guardians will be notified when students under the age of 21 are found to have committed serious or repeated violations of federal, state, local law or university policies related to the possession, use, or distribution of alcohol or a controlled substance.

"Typically letters are only sent if the student is seen by medical staff, or if the student is placed on some type of probationary status - housing contract probation, housing contract cancellation, disciplinary probation, suspension or expulsion," said Assistant Dean for Student Life Matthew Duncan.

He goes on to point out that Santa Clara would not inform parents of an alcohol-related arrest incident, unless "the university is informed of the situation." Although not as severe as UC-Santa Barbara's policy, Santa Clara seems to be moving in that direction - and rightfully so.

In his Nov. 21, 2002, letter to parents, President Paul Locatelli, S.J., shed light on the "abuse of alcohol and marijuana by students." He asked for parental involvement and support in the matter, and also alerted parents of the notification system. He pointed out that the university required an on-line interactive alcohol course this year, which "85 percent of all first-year students completed." These are steps in the right direction toward curbing dangerous and excessive alcohol abuse and possibly saving students' lives.

The university is by no means trying to ignore students' wishes for independence and responsibility. It is simply promoting discussion about critical issues that affect student life, this is a gift to students (even if it is in disguise).

I realize that many students will disagree with such a policy - no one wants to have their fun spoiled by parents and administrators - but how much fun was it for the friends and family of those college kids that have died as a result of alcohol poisoning or drunk driving?

Want to be treated like a responsible adult? First start acting like one.

By Justin Manger

Copy Editor

The last time I checked, how a college student chooses to spend his or her free time is his or her business.

Yet, this doesn't seem to be the case at the University of California Santa Barbara. Recently, the university began enforcing a policy requiring school officials to notify the parents of students who have been either arrested or hospitalized for excessive drug consumption. It seems that this is nothing more than an attempt, albeit a well-intentioned one, by an educational institution to play the role of a surrogate parent. I believe that college administrations have absolutely no business exerting that kind of influence over one's personal life.

People come to universities to receive an education and to get out into the world on their own. We have to figure out our limits for ourselves, and the only effective way this happens is if we face the consequences of our actions without mom and dad's help. In being forced to operate without the safety and assurance of our parents' help, though, we earn the undeniable right of not having those essentially dictatorial figures breathing down our necks when we do something wrong.

Adolescents intuitively know this, yet those older seem to have somewhat of a problem understanding the relationship between increased personal freedom and the increased gravity of the consequences of a serious mistake. By instituting the aforementioned policy, UC-Santa Barbara assumes the role of parent, thus defeating one of the key purposes of college: for students to learn how to be adults.

Luckily, Santa Clara's parental notification policy isn't quite so intrusive, being limited to repeat violations and federal law-breaking. Still, according to Assistant Dean for Student Life Matthew Duncan, parents of Santa Clara students will be informed of an alcohol-related arrest if "the university is informed of the situation." There's something about that statement that seems like the university is overstepping its bounds, especially considering the number of Santa Clara students who drink regularly on the weekends. All the policy will accomplish to remind students not to get caught.

It must be kept in mind that undergraduate college students want and need the freedom to be able to do things without having to worry about someone standing over our shoulders saying "don't do that." This is not to imply that college students don't make mistakes: even the most superficial observation of college social life would lay that notion soundly to rest.

This is also not to say that we don't expect negative consequences from potentially dangerous activities - we're not that stupid. Rather, it's that we don't want to be reminded we've messed up after we are already completely aware of it. We also don't want to have to deal with unnecessary repercussions (such as long-winded lectures from parents addressing the evils of drug consumption) that grown men and women typically don't have to endure when they make similar mistakes.

Additionally, even without a school administration directly notifying the parents of a given student's debauchery, chances are that the parents will eventually learn of it anyways. For example, because a college student usually cannot afford health insurance, he or she is usually listed as a dependent on their parents' plan. Should a student end up in the hospital because of his or her unchecked ingestion of narcotics, the parents of the student will inevitably learn of it without a college administration's help. Both hospital and insurance protocol dictate that the owner of the insurance policy is notified when its coverage has been used.

All a school notifying the parents of the hospitalized student accomplishes is to make an already uncomfortable situation worse. By repeatedly informing the parent that their son or daughter has been foolish, a school will merely fuel the parental disappointment and anger a student will have to suffer when they have recovered. Usually, coming close to losing one's own life is more than enough to teach a person that, no, you can't drink a bottle of Jager or Vodka in one sitting, no matter how much fun you think it would be.

And as for being jailed, well, in most families I know, even if the school didn't notify the parents directly, the parents would eventually find out. Parents seem to just do that.

Let's just hope that such a ridiculous and essentially detrimental policy is never instituted at Santa Clara as it has been at UC-Santa Barbara.