Report Urges Stricter Standards for College Students : Education: Campuses should do more to battle alcohol abuse, racism and crime, Carnegie Foundation study says.

All American colleges and universities should adopt and enforce codes of student conduct to deal with alcohol abuse, racism and crime, according to a report to be released today by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

The report does not argue for revival of in loco parentis , the philosophy mainly abandoned in the 1960s that allowed colleges to have parental-like control over students’ lives. Yet, the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction, the study suggests.

“No one would argue that colleges can or should return to the days of tight control,” states the report, conducted in conjunction with the American Council on Education. “But does this mean that there are no standards by which conduct can be measured?

“We conclude that a college or university must be a disciplined community, a place where there are appropriate rules governing campus life, an institution where individuals acknowledge their obligations to the group.”

In recent years, many campuses nationwide have beefed up rules against alcohol abuse and racial or sexual harassment. Sometimes, that has proven controversial, as students complained about violations of their freedom of speech and conduct. For example, Stanford University is debating a proposal to ban ethnic insults. The University of California recently adopted similar rules governing personal attacks.

“If you are really trying to pursue two somewhat conflicting goals of encouraging freedom of expression and also discouraging discriminatory harassment, it’s really tricky to figure out where you draw the line, one from the other,” Sally Cole, the Stanford official who reviews student conduct problems, said in an interview.

Asked about the report’s conclusions, Sheila Allen, president of the Graduate Student Assn. at UC San Francisco, said: “We don’t think you can legislate rules for morals. We don’t think that would be the best way for changing things. We think open discussion would be better.”

According to the Carnegie Foundation, American higher education “is, by almost any measure, a remarkable success.” Yet, the report concludes, “the idyllic vision so routinely portrayed in college promotional materials often masks disturbing realities of student life.”

The report’s survey of 382 campus presidents showed alcohol abuse to be the most serious problem of campus life, followed by student apathy, security, inadequate facilities and race relations.

Alcohol abuse was described as a moderate to major problem by 67% of the school presidents; 24% said racial tensions were at least moderately troubling, although that figure jumped to 68% when limited to presidents of large, research universities like Stanford or UC. The survey found that officials were concerned about drug abuse, but that alcohol was a far more serious problem on campuses.

Student conduct regulations have become more explicit and enforcement more systematic over the last five years at more than half of American colleges, said the survey, entitled “Campus Life: In Search of Community.”

Allen Yarnell, UCLA’s assistant vice chancellor for student and campus life, said the Carnegie study accurately reflects a national trend. “There clearly is a movement in the country for (colleges) to gain back some more responsibility,” he said.

But Yarnell added that such a movement has its limits. For example, UCLA wants the many moped riders on its campus to wear helmets, but cannot require that because state law allows them to drive without helmets, he said.

In other matters, the Carnegie study urges that colleges require students to take courses about the heritage and traditions of minorities. Several schools, including UC Berkeley and UC Irvine, already do so.

The report also took a harsh view toward the possibly corrupting effect of big-money sports on campus life, saying: “When celebration (of athletics) becomes hype and hysteria, when it leads to dishonesty and to the establishment of a double academic standard, when it no longer truly serves the students, the time has come for an institution to reexamine its priorities and build its tradition on integrity, not abuse.”