Q. Did any students refuse to take the test?

A. No. People showed up and took the test and no one objected.

Q. Would they have been expelled otherwise?

A. That’s not accurate. They would be administratively withdrawn if they refused to participate in the drug screening program. The drug screening program is more than just a drug test. There are several ways where students can actually avoid giving a test and continue going to school. They, for example, can petition the president of the college and if they have a valid reason why they should not be required to participate — that’s one reason to be excused from the test. The program applies to all students. Any concerns that they had would be answered. They would talk to school counselors, and if they just flat-out refused to participate in this, I guess, ultimately, if they did this they would be administratively withdrawn or they could withdraw themselves.

Q. What would be a valid excuse for opting out of a test?

A. The policy does give some valid examples, and I would certainly not speak for Dr. Claycomb, the president of the college, and the board. But for example, I would assume, you know, if someone had an extraordinarily confidential blood problem that would be disclosed or would be shown by this testing — and I don’t think anything would — if that’s a possibility, that would be a good reason for them to be excluded.

Q. Is there precedent for this?

A. There is certainly precedent for drug testing, which is a much more punitive screen then what we’re doing. The industries that we train students for, for example, I believe there’s a federal regulation that over-the-road truckers are randomly drug tested. So our students who are applying for a commercial driver’s license have to do drug testing under the federal regulation or they can’t get their license. There is precedent in the industries that the students will be applying to work in. And I think a lot of notoriety has arisen from the fact that there’s a perception we are testing an entire student body. Well, the student body at Linn State is very different from, for example, the University of Missouri or Harvard or some place like that. We are a technical college. We do heavy equipment operations. The vast majority of our training programs deal with either high-voltage electricity or heavy equipment operations, for dangerous, caustic chemicals or combinations of the above. All of these things are things we need to guard against for the safety of the students.

Q. What would the punishment be if someone tested positive?

A. We don’t view it as a punishment, but the response would be, well, they’d of course have appeal rights if they think something was wrong with the test, But assuming everyone agreed, they’d have to meet with a counselor and then they can participate in an online program designed to avoid drug abuse and dependence. There are options for education. And they would retest, and originally, it would have been about 45 days later. So there’s no adverse action from a positive initial test. It would not be until a second or even a third bad test that they would seriously be considered to be forced out of the college.