Legislatue passes bill requiring universities to report student problems

Parents may soon be getting reports from their kid’s college if the student gets in trouble for drinking or using drugs. Federal law already allows colleges to release of the info. A bill which cleared its final legislative hurdle this morning puts the same provisions in state law. Representative Rosemary Thompson, a republican from Marion, says parents should get the information when their kids get on the wrong track with alcohol or illegal drugs. She says if an insitution notices a student in violation several times or if the students grades are dropping, it’s something parents want to know.Thompson says parents want to know when their college-age kids get in trouble from binge drinking.But critics say since federal law already allows it, the bill’s meaningless. Others, like Representative Mary Mascher of Iowa City, say it’s ridiculous to expect colleges to fix a drinking problem that started at home. Mascher says people need to look in their own back yards to change the views toward drinking among minors. The bill was changed dramatically as it marched through the legislature. It started out forbidding drinking in all college dormitories in Iowa.