Pubdate: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 Source: Athens News, The (OH) Copyright: 2002, Athens News Contact: http://www.athensnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1603 Cited: Students for a Sensible Drug Policy http://www.ssdp.org DRUG POLICY ON AGENDA OF OU COMMITTEE Ohio University's Review and Standards Committee plans to reconvene today to discuss plans for sending proposals to revise the Student Code of Conduct to Vice President of Student Affairs Michael Sostarich. After hearing from representatives of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, an OU student group that opposes several proposals to toughen drug policy on campus, the committee was to meet again on Jan. 28 in order to discuss viewpoints presented by the student group. Because some committee members couldn't attend the Jan. 28 meeting, it was rescheduled for today. "Review and Standards has met once since our meeting with SSDP and had a very good conversation," said Judy Piercy, director of Judiciaries and a member of the Review and Standards Committee. "The decision was for everyone to think about it, and we'd reconvene on Jan. 28 to see where we were as a group. Unfortunately, that meeting was cancelled because three members could not attend." SSDP had hoped to gain a voting seat on the Review and Standards Committee, but voting on whether to send the drug proposals to the administration could come sooner than most had thought. Previously, Richard Carpinelli, assistant vice president for student affairs and chair of the Review and Standards Committee, had voiced his hope to send the proposals to Sostarich by fall 2002. However, in a recent e-mail message, he indicated an accelerated timetable. "It is our plan to have a report of our review of the code of conduct to Vice President Sostarich in March," Carpinelli said. He added that the meeting today would include a continuation of the ongoing review of the Code of Conduct. The main proposal for amending the code that's drawn fire from SSDP and other students would change the penalty for possession of small amounts of marijuana from a maximum of disciplinary probation to potential explusion. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake