Drug Dealing Not U Issue, Officials Say

U-M officials today reiterated a policy of evicting U-M dormitory residents involved in illegal drug traffic. They also called that traffic "not basically a student problem." Their comments were in response to this week's local arrests of 36 persons on drug charges. President Robben W. Fleming said, in a prepared statement: "I am assured by our security and student services personnel that there has never been and is not now a significant hard drug problem among students at the university." Fleming added that "only two persons affiliated with the University" were among the 36 arrested. Neither is a U-M student. They are James McNeil, a parttime employee at the U-M Television Center, and Dale Katapol, a full-time U-M custodian. (U-M Information Services said this morning the statement that none of those arrested is a U-M student is based on a list of persons enrolled as of Sept. 9). Fleming commented that "because the University is so large a part of the Ann Arbor community, anything that happens here tends to be associated with the University, though in this case, it is not basically a student problem." U-M Housing Director John L. Feldkamp said Fleming is "absolutely right in that we have not viewed hard drugs as the problem." However, Feldkamp also noted that, as previously reported, armed robberies connected with efforts by U-M students to deal in marijuana, with persons admitted to dormitory rooms, have been reported on an average of "three or four a year" for about four years. "In about two-thirds of those cases, there have been convictions. There have also been evictions for use of marijuana without robberies. I am not aware a single armed robbery in the residence halls not related to drugs," Feldkamp said. He added that dormitory residents receive notes in their mailboxes at the beginning of each term reiterating that anyone involved in, trafficking in illegal substances can expect to be evicted "within 24 hours,, with no ifs, ands or buts." The , most recent eviction connected with an armed robbery occurred last fall, and the person evicted was the robber's victim, Feldkamp said. "When his father called me and complained, I said, 'Ask your son what he was robbed of (marijuana and money), and I never heard from him again." This fall, Feldkamp added, one Housing Office employee, resident staff member in a dormitory, was fired and evicted for use of marijuana. He said "a few" students have similarly been evicted for smoking marijuana in dormitory rooms, "following complaints from other students." Feldkamp said he would readily endorse legalization of marijuana "if medical facts support if," but added that "legalization of marijuana is not going to be accomplished in Anrt Arbor. It has to be accomplished in the state and nation."