An examination of current and proposed drug-testing policies at US colleges and universities

Administrators at 400 colleges and universities were surveyed for information regarding their schools' current or proposed policies for the urine drug testing of faculty, nonfaculty employees, and students. Three hundred seven schools (77%) responded regarding their testing policies for employees and applicants for employment, including faculty and nonfaculty; 332 (83%) responded with respect to students. Twenty-five schools reported testing one or more of these groups. None of the schools reported randomly testing applicants for either faculty or nonfaculty positions, and none tested all applicants for all positions. Fewer than 7% of the colleges and universities surveyed reported that they tested urine of employees and applicants for employment to detect drug use. In those institutions that carried out tests, the tests were most often directed toward particular types of workers. Student testing was limited to approximately 2% of the 332 responding institutions.