HEA
Reform
Campaign
Gets
Boost
4/24/99
The student campaign to repeal the drug provision of the Higher Education Act of 1998 got a boost this past week, with four new endorsements of the campaign's resolution. Student governments at the University of Wisconsin at Richland, Illinois State University at Normal, and the University of Texas at Dallas, voted to adopt the resolution; and thanks to the efforts of the student activists at Richland, the United Council of University of Wisconsin Students, representing 140,000 students at the 24 University of Wisconsin campuses, endorsed the resolution unanimously last Tuesday. Other student government endorsements include the Rochester Institute of Technology (NY), Hampshire College (MA), Western Connecticut State University, Pitzer College (CA), Western State College (CO), and the Student Association of the State University of New York. The HEA drug provision delays or denies all federal financial aid for any drug offender, and the student resolution calls for the provision's repeal. Over 30 organizations so far have signed on to a letter to the Congress calling for passage of H.R. 1053, a bill sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank that if passed will repeal the HEA drug provision. Signatories include the NAACP, the United States Student Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Council of Negro Women, the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, the Center for Campus Organizing and many more. (Visit http://www.u-net.org/supporters.html for the complete listing.) Also this past week, students at Ohio State University, with supporters from the organization For a Better Ohio, demonstrated against the HEA drug provision. Visit http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/ohiohemp/demo.html to view photographs from the event. Over 9,200 e-mails and faxes supporting H.R. 1053 have been sent to Congress by visitors to DRCNet's online electronic petition at http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com since it was inaugurated last week. If you haven't yet filled out the petition, please take two minutes right now to type in your name and address and let your Representative and your two Senators know how you feel! And please take a few moments to tell your friends -- visit our referral page at http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com/tellfriend.html to send a note to them or to cut and paste our referral letter into your own e-mail or mailing list or online forum posting. The e-mail your friends receive will have your name in the subject. And don't worry -- we keep no record of your friends' e-mail addresses, and won't contact them ever again, unless they decide to subscribe to our list. Many petition visitors do decide to subscribe, so sending people to http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com is a great way to build the movement too! For further information on the HEA reform campaign and how to get involved, visit http://www.u-net.org/ or e-mail [email protected].
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