Students who receive financial aid from the West Virginia state government will lose their state aid if they receive two or more alcohol citations, according to a bill introduced before the West Virginia State Senate.
The bill, introduced Jan. 10, would stop state-funded financial aid for students who receive two or more citations related to open container laws, drunken driving, underage drinking, public drunkenness or contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
AU Associate Dean of Students Sara Waldron said she doubted the legislation would be effective in decreasing the number of alcohol citations at any college.
"These are all individual decisions," she said. "When students are making these decisions, they are not thinking about consequences. Students think they are not going to get caught."
Judicial violations at AU are not reported to the university's Office of Financial Aid, Waldron said.
"Judicial violations are not a condition of federal aid," she said. "The Judicial Affairs [and Mediation Services] office does not reveal judicial violations to the Financial Aid office."
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) requires applicants to disclose any drug convictions, but does not ask about alcohol citations.
Two alcohol violations have nothing to do with a student's academic record, said James Wigley, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences.
"A scholarship should be based solely on merit and not on judicial violations," he said.
Emma Wimmer, a freshman in the School of Communication, said she felt that the legislation would be unfair because too many people drink illegally.
"There are many people who won't get caught," she said. "It's not fair unless they can take away all the state aid for all students who drink underage."
South Carolina passed a law in 1999 that resembles West Virginia's legislation. However, unlike the South Carolina law, the West Virginia legislation does not enable a student to regain the scholarship at any time, according to The Daily Athenaeum, West Virginia University's student newspaper.
West Virginia University has a reputation as a party school - The Princeton Review rated the school as the nation's top college in that category in 2007.
If passed, the bill would only apply to students who receive state financial aid or grants and attend one of West Virginia's public colleges or one of a number of participating private colleges, according to the bill's text.
The West Virginia Senate is divided over the bill and it might not even make it out of committee, according to The Daily Athenaeum.
