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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/08/19/20080…
Cut drinking age to 18, college presidents urge
College presidents from about 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.
The movement called the Amethyst Initiative began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the drinking age.
"This is a law that is routinely evaded," said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory."
Other prominent schools in the group include Syracuse, Tufts, Colgate, Kenyon and Morehouse.
But even before the presidents begin the public phase of their efforts, which may include publishing newspaper ads in the coming weeks, they are already facing sharp criticism.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving says lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes. It accuses the presidents of misrepresenting science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem. MADD officials are even urging parents to think carefully about the safety of colleges whose presidents have signed on.
"It's very clear the 21-year-old drinking age will not be enforced at those campuses," said Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of MADD.
Both sides agree alcohol abuse by college students is a huge problem.
Research has found that more than 40 percent of college students reported at least one symptom of alcohol abuse or dependence. One study has estimated that more than 500,000 full-time students at four-year colleges suffer injuries each year related in some way to drinking and that about 1,700 die in such accidents.
McCardell's group takes its name from ancient Greece, where the purple gemstone amethyst was widely believed to ward off drunkenness if used in drinking vessels and jewelry. He said college students will drink no matter what but do so more dangerously when it is illegal.
The statement the presidents have signed avoids calling explicitly for a younger drinking age. Rather, it seeks "an informed and dispassionate debate" over the issue and the federal highway law that made 21 the de facto national drinking age by denying money to any state that bucks the trend.
But the statement makes clear the signers think the current law isn't working, citing a "culture of dangerous, clandestine binge drinking."
"(Furthermore) by choosing to use fake IDs, students make ethical compromises that erode respect for the law."
Arizona State University is staying out of the debate. University spokeswoman Terri Schafer said ASU President Michael Crow does not support the initiative.
The student government won't be pushing Crow to change his mind, said Mark Appleton, undergraduate student-government president.
"I would say that's not something that (student government) really works on," he said.
Several students on campus Monday said they were satisfied with the current age.
Republic reporter Lisa Halverstadt contributed to this article.
Cut drinking age to 18, college presidents urge
College presidents from about 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.
The movement called the Amethyst Initiative began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the drinking age.
"This is a law that is routinely evaded," said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory."
Other prominent schools in the group include Syracuse, Tufts, Colgate, Kenyon and Morehouse.
But even before the presidents begin the public phase of their efforts, which may include publishing newspaper ads in the coming weeks, they are already facing sharp criticism.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving says lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes. It accuses the presidents of misrepresenting science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem. MADD officials are even urging parents to think carefully about the safety of colleges whose presidents have signed on.
"It's very clear the 21-year-old drinking age will not be enforced at those campuses," said Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of MADD.
Both sides agree alcohol abuse by college students is a huge problem.
Research has found that more than 40 percent of college students reported at least one symptom of alcohol abuse or dependence. One study has estimated that more than 500,000 full-time students at four-year colleges suffer injuries each year related in some way to drinking and that about 1,700 die in such accidents.
McCardell's group takes its name from ancient Greece, where the purple gemstone amethyst was widely believed to ward off drunkenness if used in drinking vessels and jewelry. He said college students will drink no matter what but do so more dangerously when it is illegal.
The statement the presidents have signed avoids calling explicitly for a younger drinking age. Rather, it seeks "an informed and dispassionate debate" over the issue and the federal highway law that made 21 the de facto national drinking age by denying money to any state that bucks the trend.
But the statement makes clear the signers think the current law isn't working, citing a "culture of dangerous, clandestine binge drinking."
"(Furthermore) by choosing to use fake IDs, students make ethical compromises that erode respect for the law."
Arizona State University is staying out of the debate. University spokeswoman Terri Schafer said ASU President Michael Crow does not support the initiative.
The student government won't be pushing Crow to change his mind, said Mark Appleton, undergraduate student-government president.
"I would say that's not something that (student government) really works on," he said.
Several students on campus Monday said they were satisfied with the current age.
Republic reporter Lisa Halverstadt contributed to this article.
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All happened between '80 thru '82 - everytime I finally kept meeting the new drinking age, the would up it again on me.
Laws go into effect in Oct, and turned 18 in Nov of me Senior year in HS. Missed out for a whole year, go to college, turn 19 and drink legal for 11 months until the next Oct when it was raised to 21- out of luck for another year( no grandfather clause in NC)
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