Student conduct revises first offense marijuana policy

According to Grimesey, students’ biggest concern was harsh sanctions for a first violation of marijuana possession (photo courtesy of the Mason Office of Student Conduct).

Last semester, Mason Student Government met with the Office of Student Conduct to discuss a marijuana sanction issue bothering the student body.

“I’ve been in Student Government for four years,” senior Attorney General Rachel Grimesey said. “This comes up every single year, but it’s always dropped because a new administration, a new group of students come in, but every year we’re seeing the same issues.”

According to Grimesey, students’ biggest concern was harsh sanctions for a first violation of marijuana possession.

“Students are not happy with the way the first sanction was administered,” Grimesey said. “So often times for their first possession of marijuana sanction, they would be permanently removed from housing and removed for the semester.”

Alongside other members of Student Government, Grimesey collaborated with university offices to find a solution that satisfied both parties.

“Last year, we had the opportunity to sit down with Brent Ericson, who is the director of Student Conduct,” Grimesey said. “He’s very open-minded, very willing to work with students. We sat down and had a discussion about [the drug policy]...That was kind of the beginning of evaluating it having student voice.”

While the policy’s wording has changed little from previous years, slight changes could reflect a new outlook toward first violation sanctioning.

Concerning expulsion from residence halls, the old policy states a student is likely to be evicted from the residence halls for one year. The new policy mentions that a one semester suspension will probably be the standard.

According to Todd Rose, associate dean of University Life, students should not count on this new standard.

“Anytime a student gets disciplined for a violation of policy we take into account a couple of things,” Rose said. “Two students who may not have the very same penalty or sanction because of policy violation may have a diff erent context in which that happens.”

Rose also stressed that any changes in the sanctions will only be for students with their first possession violation. Students facing a second violation or a distributing/intent-to-sell charge will face the same range of penalties from previous years.

The main change for first possession violations is a turn towards more education-oriented penalties.

“The goal of the Office of Student Conduct is to enhance student learning, improve decision making and better the Mason community,” Ericson said via email. “Our hope is that with a greater emphasis on educational sanctions, students will avoid making future decisions that may negatively impact their educational careers.”

Grimesey attributed the successful cooperation to organized discourse and a changing nation.

“I think a lot of it was organization [and] timing and national trends have eff ected it,” Grimesey said. “I think it’s very true - something Dr. Ericson said - fi ve to ten years ago we would not be having this discussion. Th is wouldn’t even be possible”.

This story appeared in the Sept. 16 edition of Fourth Estate Weekly.