The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, A pril 16, 2014 - 3A
DRUGS
From Page 1A
are popular both as study aides
and party drugs, other substances
are growing in popularity. Steve
said acid is a popular experimen-
tal drug that students may try at
least once. In early April, a Uni-
versity officer discovered what
appeared to be a rock of metham-
phetamine during a routine traf-
fic stop.
The University deals with very
few incidents of illegal drug pos-
session internally. In its annual
report, the Office of Student Con-
flict Resolutions reported only 10
incidents of illegal drug posses-
sion for the 2012-2013 academic
year, all of which were cases of
marijuana. During a spike in
overall illegal drug possession
incidents between the 2010-2011
and 2011-2012 academic years
- which dealt with 26 and 24
reported incidents, respectively
- there were only two reports of
heroin and one of ecstasy.
OSCR Director Jay Wilgus said
the number of violations of the
Statement of Student Rights and
Responsibilities may not reflect
increased or fluctuating drug
consumption, but rather the level
of enforcement in the community
for a particular year.
Accurate statistics about stu-
dent drug use are difficult to
collect. The University relies
on the Internet-based Student
Life Survey administered by the
Institute for Research on Women
and Gender and the Substance
Abuse Research Center to gain
an understanding of what portion
of the population is using which
drugs and how many.
Since 2003, the survey reports
that the use of prescribed stimu-
lants for non-medical use has
risen between 5.4 to 9.3 percent.
Wolverine Wellness Director
Mary Jo Desprez said that drug
trends are often associated with
perception of risk: When the
perception of risk of a drug goes
down, usage goes up; when the
perception of risk goes up, the
use goes down. This public health
model may explain the rise in pre-
scription drug abuse over the last
decade or more.
"Twenty years ago you didn't
see commercials about any drug
ever," Desprez said. "I would say
prescription medications in gen-
eral are much more marketed."
Desprez said wide availability
may also contribute to the rising
trend in prescription drug abuse.
"You don't really need a drug
dealer," she said. "You need a
medicine cabinet in someone's
apartment."
5.1 percent of male students
and 4.8 of females taking the Stu-
dent Life Survey reported using
ecstasy - and/or MDMA, collo-
quially known as Molly - in the
past year, an uptick from the 2.8
and 1.7 percent, respectively, that
reported using the drug in 2011.
In that time, ecstasy went from
being the seventh most-used drug
on campus to the third.
Desprez said increases should
not be made into a bigger problem
than the data shows, especially
considering that drug use num-
bers beyond marijuana, accord-
ing to the Student Life Survey,
fall below 10 percent. At the same
time, she said all drug use is wor-
thy of the University's "awareness
and attention."
With regards to ecstasy and
Molly, she said the slow upward
trend could be attributed to a
similar decrease in perceived
risk that led to an increase in
prescription drug use. But for
ecstasy, she said the change in
perception can be traced to a cul-
tural narrative closely tied to the
music scene.
At the same time, usage of
drugs like heroin and cocaine
display no clear trend on campus
within the last decade. Cocaine
was reportedly used by 4.4 per-
cent of men and 2.6 percent of
women sampled in the 2013 sur-
vey, an increase from 3.8 percent
of men and 1.2 percent of women
sampled in 2011. According to
the 2013 survey, heroin was only
used by 0.3 percent of the student
population.
Prof. Lloyd Johnston, who
teaches in the Institute for Social
Research and co-authored of the
Monitoring the Future survey - a
government-sponsored report on
adolescent drug use from 1975 to
2008 - said nationally, levels of
cocaine use are currently low.
Amphetamines like Adderall
are the most-used drugnationally
among college students, which
has risen in the past three or four
years. Johnston said Molly is so
new that it was not included on
the 2013 survey.
He added that though heroin
use is not particularly significant
overall within the national sur-
vey, there are heroin problems
in certain localities across the
nation.
While the University's campus
is not currently one of these areas,
many states, including Michigan,
are experiencing an increase in
heroin use.
According to data collected
by the Michigan Department of
Community Health, deaths due
to heroin overdose increased in
Michigan from 271 between 1999
and 2002, to 728 between 2010
and 2012. The number of people
admitted for heroin addiction
treatment rose from 6,500 in
2002 to 13,600 in 2013.
Desprez said heroin has not
affected the University as much
because there is still a high per-
ception of risk, as well as punish-
ment.
"The penalties are a lot differ-
ent," she said. "You get caught
with a beer standing outside of a
party - and you get caught with
heroin? Really different."
People often turn to heroin
after abusing opiates like Vicodin,
Percocet and Codeine because
tolerance to those drugs develops
quickly.
"You need more and more
to get the same desired effect,"
Desprez said. "That gets to be
pretty expensive if you're buying
it. And if someone says, 'well her-
oin's really cheap and more pow-
erful,' you can see how (turning to
heroin) is goingto happen."
Since the 1990s, heroin has
become much cheaper and more
potent.
Taylor* - a freshman who
claimed to drinks at least two
times a week, uses cocaine or
Molly once a week and deals to
20 off-and-on clients - said the
transition to heroin can be dan-
gerously easy.
"You can buy a dose of heroin
for ten bucks, $5 if you don't have a
drug tolerance," he said. "Where-
as the same high for Vicodin and
Oxi would cost you probably $20
for Vicodin - which wouldn't
be as good - and Oxi, which is
almost the same, for almost 80
bucks."
Heroin is now coming in a
cleaner cut than it ever has before.
It can be taken without a needle
- something that traditionally
drove many potential users away.
Relatively pure heroin is available
to smoke or inhale rather than
inject.
"You can smoke it too," he said.
"If you get black tar heroin you
can smoke it and you can inject
black tar. And if you get china
white, which is the powder, you
can snort that or you can inject
that."
Taylor agreed with the num-
bers presented by the University's
Student Life Survey regardingthe
low frequency of heroin use. He
also agreed with the slight rise in
Molly usage and, especially, the
increase in students abusing pre-
scription drugs.
"People feel more comfortable
around prescription drugs, espe-
cially Adderall," he said. "People
think of it as a study aid, but if
you crush that shit up, it's a party
drug."
Taylor said he sells cocaine,
Molly, LSD and some prescrip-
tion drugs. Four of his clients
purchase drugs from him in
greater quantities and re-sell it
to people within their fraterni-
ties. Though he said the use of
harder drugs on campus is mini-
mal, any upward trend could be
attributed to the perception of
marijuana at large.
"Now that the weed culture is
becoming more relaxed, people
are coming into contact with it
more and therefore more people
are questioning if everything is
just as bad," he said. "And I would
like to say everything is not all
bad."
Desprez said identifying a
geographic pattern of drug use
applicable to social demograph-
ics - dorms, Greek Life and off
campus, among other areas - is
difficult to determine because the
University sees so much turnover
in student life.
"One floor can have a heavy
party reputation one year and
then the next year, a whole
bunch of new folks move in,"
she said. "That's true about
athletics teams. I think that's
true about a Greek house. But
does one have enough years of
that reputation that it starts to
recruit people?"
Jane*, a freshman who claimed
to have experimented with sev-
eral drugs, said her impression is
that the Residential College has
more drug use than the average
dorm, and most drug use is not
happening in Greek Life.
LSA junior Tommy Wydra,
president of the Interfraternity
Council, said that there is not a
drug problem within Greek Life
at the University.
"Based on what I've seen it's no
where near as prevalent as it is at
other campuses," Wydra said.
He added that most drug-abuse
incidents and prevention plans
are handled internally by indi-
vidual fraternities, though avoid-
ing the illegal use of prescription
drugs is part of the IFC's sober
monitoring training program.
Chief Neumann said that drug
prevention is difficult because
it requires follow-ups that can't
occur simply because someone is
in possession of a pill bottle.
"It takes leg work," he said. "It
does take investigation and it's
certainly not easy to do."
Neumann said the drug prob-
lem is not necessarily limited to
students, calling it "a broader
problem within our society."
However, not everyone agrees
with this assertion.
"There are a lot of false things
about how everyone who uses
them is automatically a bad
person," Jane said. "I'm not
addicted to anything. I know
that there's a lot of negative ste-
reotypes about people who use
them but I've had straight A's
this semester."
Mark Fancher, ACLU of Michigan Racial Justice staff attorney, discusses affirmative action at Rackham Amphitheater
Tuesday.
ACLU
From Page1A
history of affirmative action,
explaining how the University
played a role in the history of
affirmative action through 2003
U.S. Supreme Court cases Grut-
ter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bol-
linger.
During his lecture, Fancher
said affirmative action serves a
role in providing minority stu-
dents, who have different life and
cultural experiences than white
students do, an opportunity to
share their stories in an educa-
tional setting and enhance the
overall community culture.
Fancher said this preferential
treatment like that used in affir-
mative action is given to athletes,
children of donors to the Univer-
sity and instate residents with-
out the same resistance as with
minority students.
He ended his lecture by dis-
cussing the recent jurisdiction
over Proposal 2, a Michigan
initiative on the 2006 ballot to
end affirmative action in public
schools that passed with a major-
BAMN
From Page 1A
typically white students are bet-
ter able to prepare for the college
curriculum while students from
families with lower socioeco-
nomic statuses work just as hard
without the same payoff.
Ted Spencer, associate vice
provost and executive director of
undergraduate admissions, lis-
tened to the students' concerns,
who insistedtheUniversityneed-
ed to be more active in admit-
ting minority students. Students
asked Spencer to explain exactly
why they weren't admitted, even
chanting for Spencer to show
them their files.
Kimbrough, who is currently
a high school senior, has a GPA
of 3.5 and an ACT score of 23 out
of the possible 36. These scores
are below the average scores of
the Fall 2013 freshman class in
which students' GPA averaged
3.85 and ACT scores ranged from
29 to 33.
Still, Kimbrough has served
as the executive director of her
school's National Honors Society
Chapter, of which she is now the
president, and has worked with
the Alternative for Girls non-
profit organization, which aids
at-risk youth. Additionally, this
past weekend, she and her debate
team won the Urban Debate
National Championship.
Kimbrough said she was given
a deferred admission decision
after applying early action and
subsequently denied admission
- a decision she felt was unfair
given her level of academic and
extracurricular success through-
ity vote. ACLU attorneys recently
opposed Michigan Attorney
General Bill Schuette in court,
saying that a majority-passing
legislature that disenfranchises
a minority group is discrimina-
tory and unconstitutional. Fur-
thermore, the fact that students
of color must first appeal to the
political system before they can
lobby University admissions cre-
ates unnecessary burdens on
those students.
"It's inherently on its face
unfair, and certainly it's uncon-
stitutional," Fancher said. "And
that's the very basis of the law-
suit that is before the court right
now."
LSA junior Connor Caplis,
the chair of the ACLU Under-
graduate Chapter, said the tim-
ing of the event was appropriate
after the recent #BBUM media
demonstration organized by the
Black Student Union and other
efforts minority students took to
express the lack of diversity this
past year.
"I think there are a lot of mis-
conceptions about affirmative
action," Caplis said. "Prop.2 had a
lot of problematic messaging that
out high school.
"It frustrates me when I'm
actually trying to do something,
bring this over to the University
and show them that, 'Yes, you
can still come from this kind
of area with one parent at that
home and not a lot of money com-
ingin every year, but you can still
be somebody,'" she said.
Aguirre and Martinez said
another major issue at their high
school is money, noting the Uni-
versity's tuition costs were too
high for their families to afford.
They said the price of tuitiontyp-
ically discourages students from
applying with the knowledge
they would not be able to attend
even if they were admitted.
"It's demoralizing how they
pretty much give you the bait and
take it away; they're just playing
with you," Aguirre said. "I felt
the same way. Even if I'm able to
get in, what is the point because I
can't pay for it?"
As the BAMN protesters left
the student activities building,
Spencer had a candid conver-
sation with Martin about the
admissions process as others in
the lobby looked on. Martin told
Spencer about her work outside
of class, such as starting a Black
student union and working with
various other volunteering and
community outreach work.
Martin tried to appeal to her
and Spencer's shared race as
Black individuals, asking him
to, "look at the color of his skin,"
sayingthat he should understand
the added difficulties many
minority students face when
applying to schools.
"I've changed my commu-
nity," she told Spencer. "You've
said minority students were get-
ting preferential treatment when
in reality that's not true, no one
is gaining any preferential treat-
ment from this policy."
Many students came out to
hear Fancher speak, including
LSA freshman Kiaura Clark.
After going to a diverse high
school, she said she felt an almost
"anti-culture shock" upon arriv-
ing at the University due to its
lack of diversity.
She added that she came to
the event because she has a dif-
ficult time having educated con-
versations with students who
disagree with affirmative action,
both because it is an emotionally
charged issue and because of gen-
eral ignorance surrounding its
history.
"It's very helpful to hear a
breakdown of what exactly
affirmative action is because
a lot of time people who have
these debates aren't educat-
ed," Clark said. "I like hearing
the reasons again just so when
I'm communicating with other
students, I have even more
knowledge that I can add to the
conversation."
denied me admissions, and I've
already done what you're trying
to teach your kids here to do."
Still, Spencer told both Martin
and the group at large that the
University is highly selective,
and even students who excel in
certain areas may not have the
strongest overall application to
be accepted.
Spencer rejected the accusa-
tion that the University does not
do enough to bring in minority
students. Despite the elimina-
tion of affirmative action poli-
cies following the passage of
Proposal 2 in 2006, Spencer
said the admissions office still
uses a holistic approach to stu-
dent admissions. The Office of
Admissions evaluates each indi-
vidual applicant on academic
experiences, student essays, let-
ters of recommendation, extra-
curricular experiences and
socioeconomic profile, among
other considerations.
"We look at everything that
we can to try to figure out how
could this student be success-
ful at Michigan and would it be
a good fit," Spencer said. "We'll
put our record up against any
school in the country. I talk to
my friends at Stanford and at
Princeton; they both say we use
the same process to evaluate stu-
dents."
As for the rejected high school
students, they said they plan to
continue working toward admit-
tance despite being admitted to
other colleges. BAMN organiz-
ers said the group plans to hold
another protest next week and
will likely bring more students
who were not accepted to the
University.
CSG
From Page 1A
dent fee. The fee has notrisen from
its current rate, $7.19, since 2005.
The resolution reads: "Contin-
gent upon approval of the fee limit
increase by the Board of Regents,
the Assembly supports raising the
Central Student Government fee
to the maximum limit approvedby
the student body and the Board of
Regents."
Business senior Michael
Proppe, former CSG president,
said in a presentation to the assem-
bly that the fee, which is the CSG's
primary source of funding, could
even be raised by $2.81 to an even
10 dollars.
Proppe said raising the fee
would only increase tuition .015
percent, compared to a 32 percent
increase in CSG revenue that could
be used to aid student organiza-
tions- a goal that was impeded
this year by lower enrollment and
less "carry forward" funds from
past administrations.
Business senior Eric Kibler,
CSG treasurer, added that CSG's
recently updated policy of pro-
viding rolling applications, three
times each semester, for student
organizations seeking funding has
increased the use of funds, which
drains the budget more quickly.
Hence, a larger budget could help
meet the needs of more student
organizations.
"We have more organizations
applying for more money. We are
actually awarding more money
to organizations," Proppe said.
"The carry forward has come way
down. We have an average of 260K
per year in the old system com-
pared to 40K now"
According to a campus poll sent
out by the CSG last week, 60 per-
cent of the 2,000 student respon-
dents support the $2 increase,
whereas 50.19 percent favor the
$2.81increase.
Although the assembly did not
vote on the resolutions, members
did elect the 2014-2015 speaker
and vice speaker of the assembly:
LSA junior Christian Bashi and
Public Policy junior Laurel Ruza,
respectively.
In his opening remarks to the
assembly following this selec-
tion process, Public Policy junior
Bobby Dishell, CSG president, wel-
comed new representatives and
also plugged the accomplishments
of Big Ten on the Hill earlier this
month.
Big Ten on the Hill is a spring
conference in which student gov-
ernment delegations from each
university in the Big Ten go to
Washington, D.C. to meet with
their state's Congressional repre-
sentatives and lobby for initiatives
that are beneficial to college stu-
dents.
Rackham student Adi Sathi, the
executive director of the Associa-
tion of Big Ten Students, said in an
e-mail that the event was a success.
"It was a great honor to work
with such great student leaders
and discuss higher education poli-
cy as well as campus issues such as
mental health and sexual assault
prevention with the 14 schools in
the Big Ten," Sathi wrote.
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