VSA hosts forum on drug testing

Brian Farkas News Editor

The Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council sent a letter to senior athletic and administrative officials of the College enumerating several problems Council members had with the Vassar College Department of Athletics’ (VCDA) proposed drug testing policy. The letter was adopted after a lengthy forum discussion that invited students and athletes to Sunday’s Council meeting.

The letter was sent to the Athletics Drug Testing and Education Program Committee and the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) for consideration on Monday, April 9. It was also forwarded to President Catharine Bond Hill, who must ultimately sign off on the policy before it can be implemented, Dean of the Faculty Ronald Sharp, whose office oversees VCDA, Associate Dean of the College Raymon Parker, Director of Health Education Michelle Soucy, Director of Athletics and Physical Education Sharon Beverly, Head Athletic Trainer Jeff Carter, SAAC President Christine Lewis ’08, SAAC faculty advisor Steve Rock, and Athletics Drug Testing and Education Program Committee student representative John Mueller ’08.

At the time of publication, VCDA was only beginning to look at VSA Council’s suggestions. According to Carter, the letter will be reviewed in the coming weeks.

VSA President Abel McDonnell ’07 convened the forum so that “Council could hear the voices of non-Council members, specifically athletes.” However, no athletes or general students attended the forum, beyond those that had been consulted during the writing of the policy.

The letter calls for reforms to the current proposal, asserting that it “casts too wide a net and may unnecessarily infringe on student privacy.” Eight specific points address areas of the policy determined to be vague or unclear.

Foremost among these was the objection to the proposed method of random drug testing. Under the VCDA’s procedure, if a coach has “reasonable suspicion” that a student is using drugs, they assemble a wider range of students to test that includes the student in question, in order to maintain anonymity.

However, the letter asserts that this practice is dishonest and claims that it infringes on the privacy of more students than is necessary. The letter also emphasizes that the policy should speak to prevention and education, rather than only punishment and testing.

Council has debated this policy for several weeks. On April 1, Carter, one of the primary architects of the policy, came to the weekly VSA meeting to give the history and motivations for the plan. McDonnell has been working with the Student Life Committee to draft a letter of concerns certain representatives had about the proposed policy. Last week’s draft of the letter took a critical tone, sparking debate that lead to this week’s open forum.

Opinions on the proposed policy, which is available on the VCDA Web site, fall into three major camps—those who support it, those who oppose it on principle, and those who take issue with specific stipulations and phrasings.

Among the most vocal supporters at the forum were student-athletes. “I feel very strongly that once you elect to play a sport here, you agree to represent Vassar College in its best light,” said men’s basketball player William Kieffer ’07. “Having a team be disqualified for drug use would not only reflect poorly on the guilty individual, but would give a black eye to the Athletics Department and the College as well.”

Men’s rowing team member Patrick Schneider ’07 agreed. “Not only do our athletes represent the College as they travel around the country, but frankly, it’s dangerous for them to be on any sort of drugs,” he said. “VCDA should be allowed to make certain judgment calls about when testing is necessary.”

Lathrop House President and women’s squash team member Amalia Sax-Bolder ’08 also agreed that, “[Athletics needs] to have the flexibility to confirm whether their players are using drugs” but went on to raise several specific concerns. Most worrisome, she said, is that the policy places too much focus on identifying the problem and not enough on solving it. “Punishment alone is not a solution. Athletics needs to consider prevention through education and rehab, not just suspension from a team.” She believed that the VSA letter adequately addressed these concerns.

Not all members of Council agreed. The representatives for Town Students, Town Houses, and Jewett House voted against sending the letter on the grounds that it implicitly supports the College’s right to implement such a policy at all.

Jewett House President Christopher Smith ’07 asserted that the letter took too gentle a tone on an issue as serious as drug testing, while lacking a greater discussion of student privacy. “The letter accepted the premise that drug testing was necessary and sought to offer criticisms of the policy without considering if the policy itself was a good idea,” said Smith. “This repugnant policy strikes against the core trust between students and administrators.”

Town Students President Matthew Hackett ’07 had similar concerns. “No matter how rosy a picture the proponents of the policy and the Athletics Department may paint, there is no doubt it is a very serious invasion of student privacy,” he said.

Hackett also worried about the precedent that this legislation sets. “Through this policy, the College is permitted to compel students to produce evidence from their bodies, against themselves, at the discretion of a limited and partial set of administrators.” While Hackett appreciated the specific critiques outlined in the letter, he felt uncomfortable with a statement that condoned drug testing in the first place.

Another of the policy’s vocal critics was VSA Academic Executive Rachel Zoghlin ’07. Although she supported the letter itself, she disagreed with the underlying premise of the policy. Zoghlin complained both about the lack of privacy of the testing, and the lack of emphasis on treatment. “We should be helping students rather than going through this Big Brother-esque procedure. The policy mentions nothing about appointments at Baldwin or Metcalf after a student is determined guilty,” Zoghlin said.

Terrace Apartments President Anesa Diaz-Uda ’07 thought that the policy would detract from the Vassar nightlife by forcing students to be overly wary of exposure to certain substances. She also questioned whether students would be disinclined to attend Vassar because of it.

Carter took issue with one of the points made in the letter, which cites a study suggesting that drug testing policies create an incentive for students to use more dangerous, harder-to-detect drugs. “The author of the article only suggests this might be an outcome and shows no valid research to back up the claim,” said Carter. “There is currently no other research to back this assertion up. That particular study was done on a small sample of high school students. To my knowledge, there have been no follow-up studies on college student-athletes based on that author’s work.”

Even so, Carter appreciated the VSA’s input. “I feel the letter will lead to some valid discussions. However, whether any of their concerns are written into the policy will be determined by the meetings with the student-athletes and the committee.”