The U.S. Senate may have thought they were doing the right thing when they overwhelmingly passed the Higher Education Act of 1998, but it failed in its attempt to fairly punish wrong-doers on campus.

A provision to the bill, which was passed 96-0, says that students caught with illegal drugs will lose their financial aid eligibility for a certain interval, depending on the severity of the crime.

Students who are not habitual drug users or those who may be just experimenting with marijuana will lose their eligibility, while someone who is a repeat alcohol offender can still get the loans and grants to keep them in school.

The question is, why punish those students who harm no one but themselves with marijuana, but not students who are alcoholics who put people’s lives at risk when they get behind the wheel?

The legislation is too narrow and fails to punish everyone equally who deserve to be punished.

Someone in possession of a little marijuana and someone in possession of cocaine or heroin will both face the same punishment.

All the while, thiefs, drunk drivers and other petty criminals fail to receive any punishment for actions just as dangerous, if not more.

If threatening a student with jail time for using illegal drugs fails to deter drug use, why will the chance of losing federal aid eligibility do anything to stop people from using drugs?

The legislation is not sufficient in accomplishing what politicians tried to do.

Equally illegal crimes should be subject to similar punishments.

editorialboard: Carrie Tett, Jocelyn Marcus, Katie Goldsmith, Andrea Hauser and Tim Paluch