The University of Central Florida rejected the mandatory random student drug testing proposal as announced by the Dean of Students Friday afternoon.
David Siegel, founder of Westgate Resorts who proposed random student drug testing at UCF, met with President Hitt and UCF administrators who oversee programs that support students on Friday, Aug. 28 to discuss student substance abuse preventative measures and programs.
Siegel recently became passionate about student drug testing after losing his 18-year-old daughter to a drug overdose. Since then he has been working to implement programs to make schools drug-free, however, random drug testing raises questions of constitutionality.
“Any talks of random mandatory drug testing is unconstitutional and we’re not going to implement such a process here on campus knowing that that is the law,” Anthony Jenkins said.
“UCF is not embarking on the mandatory random drug testing program as I presented to them, mainly for a fact that they don’t think it would be constitutional under Amendment Four of the Constitution,” Jenkins said. “We disagree so we’re going to have our constitutional lawyers meet with their attorneys and my intention would be to take it all the way to the Supreme Court.”
“They drug test student athletes. Why is a student athlete treated differently than a regular student?” Siegel raised this question during his speech after the meeting.
Jenkins explained that it is legal to drug test student athletes but not the general student body.
Although the university and Siegel do not see eye to eye on everything, they do have the common goal of helping students to rise above substance abuse. Jenkins said there are points that the duo can agree on but will require some ongoing conversation.
“We did not leave our meeting indicating that, you know, we did not want a drug free institution and that we could not partner together,” Jenkins said.
Young Americans for Liberty officer Brittany Turner said she considers today a win. “I’m very happy that the university is more in support of student’s fourth amendment rights than anything,” Turner said.
“If there are so many people overdosing every year than we should educate people on, you know, what to do if you do see someone overdosing,” NORML president Sade Samantha Adeyemi said.
“The best way to prevent something is by educating people on it,” Adeyemi said as she explained that she thinks UCF should continue to develop substance abuse educational services for students.
Jenkins explained that UCF’s model focusing on prevention, treatment and recovery has been in place since 2002 and the university works to educate students on substance abuse through student orientation, the first year experience program and the residential life programs.
Jenkins explained that he thinks the university can find common ground with Siegel in strengthening work with their K-12 partners.
“The actual conversation now is how do you further that down the actual pipeline,” Jenkins said. “How do we build stronger relationships with our K¬-12 partners with the understanding that the issues and challenges that they face today will be ours tomorrow?”
