ISU students caught drinking underage or using illegal drugs would face not only legal ramifications, but the wrath of their parents if a bill in the Iowa Legislature passes.

The bill, which is a modified version of the proposal by Rep. Rosemary Thomson, R-Marion, to ban alcohol consumption in all college dormitories in the state, would allow Iowa’s universities and colleges to notify students’ parents if they were convicted of alcohol or drug-related offenses.

Thomson said the bill she proposed was amended and combined with a bill introduced in the House Education Committee.

States were given the right to pass such laws in 1998 when the U.S. Congress passed a similar bill.

“Now if a student violates a federal, state or college code, the university would have the right to notify the parents,” Thomson said.

The bill passed the Iowa House March 16 by a vote of 86-2, and it will soon be debated by the Senate.

Thomson said she thought the bill had bipartisan support, and she predicted it would pass in the Senate as well. She also said her original bill was changed because of a large amount of negative reaction from college students.

“Students said we should not try to ban alcohol on campus because students would just go elsewhere, which I think is a lame excuse,” she said. “They were trying to say that there are bars right by the dormitories who advertise 75 cents all you can drink, so they could find alcohol if they wanted to.”

Thomson said the goal of the current bill is to give university administrators one more tool to battle binge drinking on campus. She pointed out that schools would not be required to notify parents when their students get in legal trouble; that decision would ultimately be up to each university.

However, Thomson insisted the bill is something Iowa’s school officials have been pushing for.

“The administration was asking more for leeway to give parents notification,” she said.

Gary Steinke, ISU director of Governmental Relations, said he was not sure how Iowa State officials would react if the bill were to pass. He said he assumed administrators would make the decision to notify a student’s parents or legal guardian based on the particular offense involved in each case.

Steinke also noted the Board of Regents, which governs Iowa’s three state universities, has not taken a public stance on the bill.

“The Board of Regents has taken no position on the bill, but they said they are monitoring the issue,” he said.

John McCarroll, director of University Relations, also said university officials are closely watching the bill because it brings up a lively debate about the independence of college students.

“Historically, the debate has been that students come to college and are adults, so they should be able to make their own decisions,” he said. “Then there are the parents and legal guardians who are maybe paying for the students’ education and feel they have the right to know if their student is in trouble. So it becomes an issue of privacy versus the parents’ right to know.”

McCarroll said the university plans to take a “wait-and-see” attitude until the bill’s fate has been decided. There has been no date set for Senate debate on the bill yet.