Officials send letters to parents for alcohol policy violations

Officials from campus housing and student development have sent out approximately 60 notification letters to parents of students who have violated the school's drug or alcohol policy since the beginning of the semester, Jim Hicks, associate dean of students, said."[The bill] requires public institutions of higher education to notify parents or legal guardians of students under the age of 21 if the student commits a disciplinary violation with respect to use of possession of alcohol or controlled substance that is a violation of law or institutional policy or rule," according to the Education, Higher Act.

Chuck Cantrell, assistant vice chancellor of university relations, said he believes the idea behind the law is that students will not drink because they do not want their parents to find out.

"I think there are some students that will respond to this and that are afraid of their parents finding out," Cantrell said. "But I think that most students assume that they are not going to get caught when they are doing something that they are not supposed to do."

Hicks said officials do not send out the letter to parents until after students have been notified of the violation and a five-day appeal period has passed.

There has been some confusion among students, Hicks said, concerning how the new legislation works with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy act that protects the records of college students.

"[The Family Educational Rights and Privacy act] says that an institution may contact family members if a student violates the alcohol or drug policy," Hicks said. "It has always been up to the institution's discretion whether to do this or not."

Hicks said Tennessee is the first state that has required universities to notify parents.

Although the university has been allowed to contact parents



concerning violations in the past, officials have chosen not to.

"Each family situation is a little different so in the past we have left that decision up to the students," Hicks said.

Hicks said he has mixed feelings about the ability of the bill to deter students from committing violations.

"I always ask when I am sitting with a student [with a violation] if they have talked to their parents and family about this incident anyway," Hicks said. "In some ways it is going to be a duplication of the communication that is coming from the student anyway. As a parent they probably want to hear it from the student more than they do from the school."

Hicks said he does believe this policy has the ability to alert parents to larger problems that a student might be having.

"I always talk [to students] about including their family in this conversation," Hicks said. "I certainly understand where students are coming from when they feel like this may be a violation of their privacy," Hicks said. "But it is our hope that this generates conversations that will improve campus life and will improve the students lives."

Amanda Cook, a freshman from Nashville, said she disagrees with the policy.

"If the student wants to tell their parents about it, then that's fine," Cook said. "I probably would tell my parents, but that is still my decision and not something that should be forced upon me.

"I think that the school should not get involved. If a student gets in trouble with the police, the parents are not going to get in trouble. It should be the student's responsibility."

Laura Gallaher, a freshman from Nashville, said she disagrees with the policy.

"I don't think it is going to prevent anything because they are going to find a way to get in trouble if that is what they want," Gallaher said.

"Telling the student's parents is not a very big deal and is not going to stop kids from [violating the drug or alcohol policies]," she said.