tech changes policies on drugs and sexual assault

On August 29th Virginia Tech changed there zero tolerance policy to allow  leniency toward minor first time offenders. This means that its only first time offending students in possession of marijuana will be treated less harshly than students in possession of harder drugs such as  and cocaine. There is pros and cons to Tech's new policy on drugs. The pros would be that it would give people a second chance because everyone makes mistakes. Also it allows people to learn from their  lapse and to realize that participating in activities like that will follow them the rest of there life. The cons of this policy would be that some students might choose to abuse it. For example a student might think "oh I can be caught once and get away with it." They would look at it as a get out of jail free card. however in this situation I believe that the pros out weigh the cons mainly because it gives people a chance to learn from their mistakes even if they choose abuse the policy.

Tech also changed the the policy on alcohol. They made it so each individual offense will be looked at on a case to case basis. For instance  there was a case where a student was caught under the influence by his RA, who later called the Virginia Tech rescue after fearing his own safety. on the old alcohol policy this student would have been suspended, he was not. this policy definitely benefits the students because if the student in the case stated before were to have been suspended next time he would have been afraid to call and get help. As Ed Spencer, the vice president of student affairs said "somehow we should reward this person so speaking out or getting help."

Not only did Virginia Tech reform it policies on drugs and alcohol, but they also reformed the policies  on sexual assault. They made it so that the victim of the assault can appeal rulings, which could pose problems because it uses the same system on first and second offenders. "You’re taking a person being charged (then cleared),” Spencer said. “Now, we’re using the same system twice.” Even though this policy could potentially let some offenders off the hook it is still a valid system and will do the job that it was designed to do.