Bennett Urges College Heads to Ban Drugs

Education Secretary William J. Bennett, noting the recent drug deaths of young athletes, said today that every college president in the nation should begin and strictly enforce a ban on drugs on campus.

“Such a policy could, in fact, be enforced. It should be enforced,” Bennett said. “And no parent or taxpayer would object if such a policy were announced and carried out.”

Bennett said colleges and universities have a responsibility to parents to take measures to protect their children from illegal drugs and drug pushers, just as they protect from crime, fraud or exploitation.

“Parents do not expect colleges to be neutral as between decent morality and decadence,” he said.

Strict Enforcement

“Every college president should write to his students this summer and tell them this: ‘Welcome back for your studies in September; but no drugs on campus. None. Period. This policy will be enforced--by deans and administrators and advisers and faculty--strictly but fairly,’ ” he said.

Bennett made the remarks in a lecture to several hundred people at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with close ties to the Reagan Administration.

The education secretary said government and family have roles to play in the fight against drugs, adding, “But with the recent deaths of young athletes in mind, let me also ask this: What of the role of our cultural institutions?

“Our colleges and universities often, and sometimes quite properly, call to task the rest of society for failing to live up to its stated ideals. They set themselves the role of moral gadfly, moral conscience. But what of them?”

Although he did not cite names, Bennett obviously referred to the death June 19 of University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, of cocaine intoxication. His death has focused intense scrutiny on the university’s sports program and on college athletics in general.

It was followed eight days later by the cocaine-induced death of Cleveland Browns football star and former UCLA player Don Rogers, 23, which touched off renewed calls for drug testing. The National Football League on Monday announced mandatory random drug testing of its players.