Party imperils college's funding

As students at Portland, Oregon's Reed College ready for their annual end of the year bash, some faculty members worry that the liberal arts school may risk losing federal funding if drug problems among students at the institution persist.

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The concern stems from a meeting held last week where federal officials apparently warned Reed President linkurl:Colin Diver;http://www.reed.edu/president/ and Vice President/Dean of Student Services linkurl:Mike Brody;http://www.reed.edu/student_services/ that the college could lose its federal funding -- including research grants and student loans and aid -- if drugs continued to be a problem at the school. The day after the meeting, Diver sent an email to Reed faculty and students relaying the warning. "We were...reminded of federal legislation that allows all federal funding -- including student loans -- to be withdrawn from any college or university that fails to take adequate steps to combat illegal drug activity," Diver wrote. That federal legislation is the linkurl:Drug Free Schools and Communities Act of 1989,;http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c101:H.R.3614.ENR: which states that: "...no institution of higher education shall be eligible to receive funds or any other form of financial assistance under any Federal program, including participation in any federally funded or guaranteed student loan program, unless it certifies to the Secretary [of Education] that it has adopted and has implemented a program to prevent the use of illicit drugs and the abuse of alcohol by students and employees..." Over the years, Reed College has gained a reputation for what some see as a permissive take on drug use on the campus. Since 2008, two Reed students have died of heroin overdoses while enrolled at the college. This week, as Reed ramped up for the Renn Fayre, the annual weekend-long shindig where graduating seniors celebrate the completion of their mandatory thesis projects, national and local media jumped on the story. linkurl:Kevin Myers,;http://www.reed.edu/news_center/for_journalists/media_office.html Reed spokesperson, told __The Scientist__ that the reports of an explicit threat to withdraw federal funding were overblown. "There was no explicit threat," he said. "The U.S. attorney and the district attorney perceived a very real and dangerous threat to the health and safety of our students, and we welcomed their intervention. I don't think anybody on campus is perceiving any threat to their grants, to their loans, to their financial aid." But some Reed faculty members who receive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are somewhat concerned about the potential of losing their federal funding. "I think it's something that certainly all of us are considering," Reed adolescent addiction researcher linkurl:Kristen Anderson;http://academic.reed.edu/psychology/Anderson.html told __The Scientist__. linkurl:Jay Mellies,;http://academic.reed.edu/biology/professors/jmellies/ a Reed researcher who studies virulence genes in __E. coli__, told __The Scientist__ that though the Reed administrators have made efforts to clamp down on drugs at the college, he was still apprehensive about the warning. "I suppose I'm somewhat worried about it, but we have taken steps to crack down on some of the drug use on campus." Mellies has four thesis students graduating this year, two of whom are funded by an NIH Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA or R15) grant. (The other two are funded by what Mellies called "campus monies" coming from Reed's general operating budget or endowed funds.) linkurl:Peter Russell,;http://academic.reed.edu/biology/professors/prussell/ a Reed yeast geneticist, echoed Mellies's concern, but added that the faculty hadn't really had enough time to absorb the news yet. "This sort of suddenly came at us as a bit of a surprise," he told __The Scientist__. Russell, who studies plant viruses using yeast as a model with the help of a soon-to-expire R15 grant from the NIH, noted that federal funds are crucial to Reed faculty, because the college's limited internal funding is not sufficient to achieve their research and educational goals. "Having the [federal] grants enables us to do a level of research that the college could not support," he said. "It sets up an environment for students to do what would be impossible with just internal funds." Russell said that he's received several grants from the NIH and the National Science foundation during his 38 years on Reed's faculty. He added that he plans on retiring at the end of the 2011 academic year. Russell added that while Reed has had its share of drug problems in the past, it's not likely that different from any other college campus. "It just happens that there was a series of events that turned on these local law enforcement people and district attorney people," he said. "In a sense you feel somewhat helpless because things could happen to our grant funding that's not completely within our control." At least one Reed faculty member isn't at all worried about the possibility of the college losing its federal funding. Developmental biologist linkurl:Steven Black,;http://academic.reed.edu/biology/professors/sblack/ who has an R15 grant from NIH for more than $200,000, told __The Scientist__ that he didn't know many of the details involved with the recent events, but that he was confident that Reed was working to keep drug use under control. Asked if he was worried about losing his funding, Black said: "No, because I feel that everything's going to be cool."
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