By Aidan Bearden / Staff Writer

With the start of the new semester, Missouri Valley University Resident Life has hardened its drug policy for students caught with marijuana. With the new policy, Residential Advisors and Coordinators are told to issue fines if marijuana is found on campus. If a student gets multiple offenses, each following offense is meant to be more punitive. The first offense is a $300 fine, the second offense is a $500 fine, and a third offense would lead to expulsion. Students under the age of 21 can also experience expulsion on their first offense. Paper fliers have been issued to dorms across campus to warn students of the new policy.

This change in policy follows the new leadership of Michael Elam, as the Dean of Student Engagement and Athletics. Interim Housing Director Jo-Elle Natividad stated that Elam and President Dr. Joe Parisi worked together to implement and devise a new policy to cut down on marijuana use on campus. Natividad said that this new policy was necessary to mitigate drug use on campus. 

“You used to be able to walk through dorms, and we would give them warnings, probation,” said Natividad. “It’s more of a deterrent about really trying to keep it out of the dorms and trying to make life on campus easier.”

 Natividad claimed that since the new policy implementation, there have been fewer complaints about marijuana use on campus, specifically fewer complaints about the smell of marijuana on campus. Residential Coordinator Ana Franco feels that these policy changes were necessary after a year of disorderly marijuana use on campus.

“Last year we had a lot of issues with weed, and the problem was they were getting caught, but then we couldn’t do anything,” said Franco. “We would report them, but then sometimes we couldn’t prove that they were there.”

Franco said that she has noticed this new policy implementation to be effective, as she hasn’t had to report any students so far this semester for on-campus possession of marijuana. Dean of Students and Associate Dean of Student Engagement, Jimmy Heinzler, said that he has received positive feedback about the new policy implementation.

Heinzler said, “I’ve only been here for a few weeks, but I have had comments from numerous people saying that the dorms smell better… even the staff has mentioned it.” 

Similar to Elam, Heinzler is another person to take up a new leadership position at MVU with Student Engagement.