Most NIU officials feel random drug testing of college students will not occur in the near future, but Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder disagrees.

According to news reports, Wilder, who is considering a bid for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination, caused much controversy at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, last week. Wilder created a task force to explore whether random drug testing of college students might curb drug abuse.

Wilder said that he isn’t advocating drug testing, but wouldn’t object if colleges wanted to test students. If Wilder’s proposal succeeds, Virginia colleges would become the only state schools with student drug testing.

“I don’t think we will see random student drug testing in the near future,” said Michael Haines, coordinator of NIU’s Health Enhancement Services.

aines said he first would have to know the rationale of testing students for drug use.

“One must determine the university’s interest and what right they have in determining what students do in their private lives,” Haines said.

Haines also said that actually conducting the drug testing would be “a monstrous waste of money and very hard to pull off.”

“I’d rather see health dollars spent on keeping people healthy,” Haines said. “What people don’t seem to realize is that the actual number of drug abusers of drugs other than alcohol and tobacco products is less than 10 percent.”

NIU students seem to have different opinions on the idea of random student drug testing. Sue Rounds, a freshman nursing major, said she would be in favor of the drug testing if it ever came to be.

“I would be in favor of drug testing because maybe it would set students straight and make them do even better in school,” Rounds said.

Freshman Michael Vosberg, a pre-engineering student, disagreed. He said he feels it would not be fair to distribute the drug testing randomly.

“I would not be in favor of it because too few students would be actually tested,” Vosberg said. “If they were going to do it, they should do it on a larger scale.”