Abstract

You Protest, You Pay

This article focuses on the issue of withholding financial aid to students an incentive to curb "undesirable" behavior. It started with Congress, which in 1998 voted to deny federal financial aid to students with minor drug convictions like marijuana possession. In Ohio, where an Ohio State University football victory over Michigan last year set off a celebratory riot resulting in nine torched cars and $135,000 in police overtime costs, Governor Bob Taft OK'd a law in June that takes away financial aid for up to two years from students convicted of "rioting" or" failing to disperse." Ohio activists say that at a time when tuition and fee increases are soaring because of tighter state budgets -- nine percent at Ohio State this year -- the new law could stifle student protests. Minnesota this year shot down an anti-rioting bill similar to Ohio's because of concerns over who would be responsible for carrying out background checks. But after a drunken riot near the Minnesota State campus resulted in forty-five arrests, sixteen injuries and an estimated $100,000-$200,000 in property damage, Republican Representative Carla Nelson promised to reintroduce legislation next year that would disqualify convicted students from receiving state financial aid and require them to pay out-of-state tuition.