Some university officials across the country want to reopen the discussion about the legal drinking age and are suggesting that lowering the minimum age to 18 will reduce binge drinking.
U. Penn president: Drinking-age debate needed
It is “unrealistic” to expect people who can vote and serve in the military “not to be able to take a drink,” University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann said.
But she has decided not to sign an initiative asserting that the legal drinking age of 21 leads to widespread underage binge drinking, even though she said she supports debate about lowering the drinking age.
The Amethyst Initiative was signed this summer by the presidents of 128 colleges and universities, including Dartmouth, Duke, Tufts and Johns Hopkins. The initiative does not specifically call for the drinking age to be lowered, but it encourages debate about the issue.
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Penn State president Spanier abstains from initiative to lower drinking age
Unlike more than 100 university presidents at some of the most prominent schools in the country, Penn State President Graham Spanier declined to join a controversial initiative that aims to “rethink the drinking age.”
But several of the 128 university presidents who have signed onto the Amethyst Initiative have asserted the group’s true purpose is to launch a discussion on college-age drinking, not overhaul a 24-year-old federal law.
A statement on the initiative’s Web site calls for an “informed and dispassionate public debate over the effects of the 21-year-old drinking age.”
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UC Berkeley undecided on drinking age initiative
Although leaders of 129 universities and colleges have signed an initiative to discuss changing the current alcohol drinking age, UC Berkeley is sitting tentatively on the fence.
Chancellors and presidents of college campuses across the nation have signed the Amethyst Initiative, which states that the 21-year-old drinking age is “not working” and “has caused a culture of binge drinking” on their college campuses.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau has yet to decide if he will sign the initiative because he is currently deliberating the advice of various officials, according to campus administrators. He will also consider a conference in early September, during which UC officials will discuss the initiative.
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Growing movement to make 18 legal gets support elsewhere
SIUC administrators want no part of a movement among university leaders to lower the legal drinking age to 18.
The Amethyst Initiative, which had the support of 128 university and college presidents as of Monday, contends that having 21 as the legal drinking age encourages a culture of dangerous binge drinking. Administrators at SIUC argue that simply lowering the age would not help the problem.
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Indiana U. president McRobbie will not sign drinking age petition
Indiana University President Michael McRobbie is not among the more than 100 college and university leaders who have signed a petition that argues the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18, even though he thinks the drinking age should be lowered.
“In his native land in Australia, the age is 18, and it is his belief that that’s a reasonable age for consumption of alcohol,” said IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre.
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Duke prez backs new debate on drinking
President Richard Brodhead has taken a shot at the legal drinking age.
On June 26, Brodhead was one of the first of 123 college presidents to sign on to a movement that decries the effectiveness of the current drinking age limit at 21 and advocates candid debate on alternative options, including lowering the legal drinking age to 18.
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U. Iowa president Mason declines support to drinking age initiative
Citing the need for a widespread change in culture in regard to underage drinking, University of Iowa President Sally Mason recently declined to support a nationwide initiative to lower the drinking age.
No single solution is sufficient to remedy the problem, she said.
Across the country, however, a coalition of roughly 100 college and university presidents agreed to support research studying underage and binge drinking in college settings. The group, Amethyst Initiative, suggested lowering the national drinking age as a possible solution to problems associated with college drinking.
Full Story from The Daily Iowan