HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune
Incoming Theta Chi president James Parker (right) talked with other fraternity members yesterday.
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The unusual move by San Diego State University officials to invite federal drug agents to infiltrate the campus is sparking concern and criticism but also drawing interest from college administrations elsewhere.
Carole Kennedy, a political science professor and head of SDSU's faculty union, said she was dismayed by the level of drug activity on campus. But Kennedy said she also was disturbed that the university's president “unilaterally allowed” undercover federal agents to gather intelligence from student organizations.
It sets a bad precedent, Kennedy said.
“Now it's drugs,” she said. “Maybe next time it's about political dissent. . . . What happens when you have students talking about federal income tax policy, saying they're not going to pay their taxes? Are they going to bring in IRS agents?”
SDSU President Stephen Weber stood by the decision.
“I can tell you that the feedback I have received thus far from members of the campus community, our alumni, parents and friends across the country strongly supports our actions,” Weber said in a statement released yesterday.
The debate follows the arrests of 101 suspects, including 76 SDSU students, the result of a yearlong investigation, which culminated Tuesday, into drug dealing on and near campus.
In other developments yesterday:
Authorities said the investigation could expand to high schools and other colleges. They believe one of the suspects arrested also was dealing drugs to a small number of high school students.
Authorities announced the arrests of five more suspects late Tuesday. Some of those arrested were roommates of the original targets who also had a large supply of drugs in their possession, said Damon Mosler, chief of the narcotics division of the San Diego County District Attorney's Office.
“One had about a hundred tabs of Ecstasy,” Mosler said.
Eight men who a judge said were at risk of “poisoning this community with drugs” pleaded not guilty to drug charges in San Diego Superior Court.
Defense lawyers asked that some of the men be released because they had no criminal records, but Judge David M. Szumowski refused. Szumowski said the charges indicate the men pose a risk to the community.
Defense attorney Marc Carlos, who represents Jarrod Skippon, 19, said outside the courtroom that prosecutors are “making this a lot bigger than it actually is.”
The accusations against those arrested “generally are small transactions,” Carlos said.
“The fact that there's drugs on college campuses is not new,” he said.
Almost half the nation's 5.4 million full-time college students abuse drugs or alcohol at least once a month, according to a 2007 study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
San Diego State had 190 drug-related arrests last academic year, compared with 59 at the smaller University of California San Diego and 33 at Cal State San Marcos.
In protest of the drug raids, members of the SDSU group Students for Sensible Drug Policy hosted a mock graduation on campus for the arrested students and two students who have died in the past year under drug-related circumstances.
“I don't think that SDSU should have invited federal drug officials to come smear our campus and make it seem like it's a big drug land,” said Randy Hencken, outgoing president of the student group, which supports the legalization of drugs and access to treatment. “I think that we needed to address this issue in-house.”
The group called for a policy to protect students who may be high from being punished when they call to report an overdose of a friend.
Graduate student Sarah Fredrickson supports the arrests and calling in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“If you do drugs and you get caught, you should go to jail,” Fredrickson said.
Tod Burke, a criminal justice professor at Radford University in Virginia who has researched the use of informants on campuses, said schools often don't call in federal agents because they don't want to be associated with large-scale drug investigations or the publicity that follows. Plus, colleges are supposed to encourage an open exchange of ideas, Burke said.
“Can you really have that when people are looking around them saying, 'Is this person a narc?' ” Burke said.
On the other hand, he said the DEA did a good job in this investigation and that SDSU has laid the groundwork for other schools.
Eric Reichel, campus police chief at CSU Chico, said his department's collaboration with federal officials is largely limited to joint task forces.
“But I would not hesitate to request (federal) resources if we needed it,” Reichel said.
Orville King, UCSD campus police chief, said he has heard of no other colleges asking for help from federal agents in drug cases, including his own.
“Certainly an investigation of this scale, given the number of warrants that were served and arrests that were made, would require support from other agencies. . . . I probably would have asked for help from anyone who was available who had the necessary skills,” King said.
Mosler said all college campuses have drug activity, but that it's rare for one to contact the DEA.
“I think every college is somewhat reluctant to acknowledge a drug problem,” he said.
Mosler said the DEA wouldn't be interested in just any college drug sting.
“They're trying to catch the bigger fish,” he said.
Staff writers Ray Huard and Mark Arner contributed to this report.
Sherry Saavedra: (619) 542-4598; sherry.saavedra@uniontrib.com
