The University Council Wednesday rejected the initiation of the drug assistance progam on an interim basis in favor of a motion to form a task force designed for all NIU students.

The Alcohol and Drug Assistance Program for Athletes was a comprehensive program of services aimed at helping the student athlete who abuses drugs.

The program included the prevention of drug use through education, the detection of substance abusers through voluntary testing and the follow-up treatment and aftercare of those athletes found to use drugs.

“Right now, this university doesn’t have any clear, articulated policies as to how we deal with a student or athlete who says, ‘I have a problem, and I need help,'” said Michael Haines, coordinator of Health Enhancement Services. “We have procedures that could deal with it, but we would use the ordinary procedures to deal with anybody asking for any type of help.”

A motion was made to accept the proposal and put it into action through June 30, 1987. Three conditions were included in the proposal including one which would offer a no-credit course to athletes. Another would have more faculty representation on the ad-hoc committee set up to study the effectiveness of the program, and the third would provide more details to the council on the costs of the program.

A seperate motion was made to designate the task force designed to investigate the use and abuse of drugs among all students and to study the developement of a program of assistance for all students.

“The thing that bothers me the most (about the athletic’s proposal) is that it is still compulsory drug testing,” said Jim Norris, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “I ask myself, ‘What happens if an athlete says no?’ and the answer is that he becomes ineligible for play.”

Jon Dalton, vice president for student affairs, responded, “It isn’t any different than what already exists now.” Currently, if a coach sees signs of a physical problem in an athlete he asks him to have a medical assessment. If the player refuses, he can be declared ineligible, he said.

Cletus Fisher, professor of communicative disorder, said, “This (the motion) is only for an interim basis. We’re doing it to protect the program at this time. We’ll have plenty of opportunity for additional changes and for additional dialogue.”

The first motion, with the three conditions, was voted down by a 20-11 vote. The second motion for the task force passed.

Executive Secretary of the council Jim Giles said that no further ction will be taken concerning a program for drug use among athletes until the task force is appointed and it reports to the council.

“At this point, the proposal (for the athletes) is dead unless the task force decides that they will take this proposal and build on it,” said Haines. “I’m not going to say that we’re back to square one because we’ve learned a lot from square one to where we are today. But we’re going to start to write a new proposal.”