SHANNON URTNOWSKI
Editor in Chief
A group of administrators at some of the nation’s leading universities has organized to reconsider the drinking age, a flawed law they say has pushed alcohol consumption on college campuses toward dangerous extremes.
Pepperdine University President Andrew K. Benton has twice declined to join the initative.
The campaign, known as the Amethyst Initiative, is an effort comprised of 129 university presidents and chancellors across the country who want to “rethink the drinking age,” according to the Amethyst Initiative Web site.
John McCardell, the former president of Middlebury College in Vermont, started the initiative in July. Presidents of Ivy League institution Dartmouth College and local private school Occidental College, among others, have joined him in this effort. As professed by their signatures on the Amethyst Initiative petition, they hope to reopen the discussion regarding the legal alcohol limit.
In 1984, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act made 21 the legal age limit across the county. Twenty-four years later, in an effort to curb binge drinking, the Amethyst Initiative asks that serious debate about lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 take place.
Benton received a letter to join the Amethyst Initiative in July, and he refused. After declining the first request, the Amethyst Initiative sent him a second, which he again declined later that month.
“I was approached by the group and I read the material, and I was really pretty stunned by the logic, or the illogic,” Benton said. “I think it’s bad policy.”
Though the initiative simply asks for “informed and unimpeded debate” about the issue, not an immediate policy change, Benton said he believes the effort signifies “surrender” to a serious problem.
“If we can come to a good policy decision, then I would understand that,” he said. “But, the notion that we can’t enforce it, so let’s just give up on it — I really struggle with that.”
In addition, the letter asked the University to take an official position on the issue, according to Benton, but he added that Pepperdine does not have one.
“I have some instincts, but I think it’s wrong to go and make some policy pronouncement,” he said. “Something more thoughtful has to occur.”
Robert Scholz, a University counselor and coordinator for alcohol and other drug programs, said no research exists to support the idea that an effort, such as the Amethyst Initiative, will lower binge drinking among college students. However, numbers detailing underage drinking are alarming, and many agree that something needs to occur. For example, last year a nationwide study found that 40 percent of college students reported at least one symptom of alcohol abuse and dependence, according to an Aug. 18 article by Associated Press.
Though Pepperdine is below the national average for binge drinking, according to Scholz, underage drinking is a problem that colleges across the nation face. As such, he said the Amethyst Initiative, at the least, brings to light an important issue worth once again discussing.
“It’s highlighting the ongoing concern with alcohol abuse on campuses,” he said. “So, in many ways it’s sort of raised the attention on an issue that we know is really concerning.”
This is the reasoning that college presidents and chancellors, including Los Angeles-based Occidental College president Robert A. Skotheim, had behind signing the Amethyst Initiative petition.
“[The initiative aims] to publicly acknowledge a serious problem and stimulate a thoughtful debate about how to best address it,” Skotheim wrote in press statement distributed by the university’s communication department. “Occidental will, of course, continue to enforce existing laws and to work with students to change the drinking culture on campus.”
Despite this optimistic ideology, Mother’s Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has been a verbal opponent of the Amethyst Initiative and said its efforts will negatively affect college students.
“Lowering the drinking age is not going to stop binge drinking — it’s not the solution to a problem,” said Program Coordinator for MADD California Silas Miers. “We need to continue with educating and informing. We can’t throw in the towel — that’s ridiculous.”
Miers added if any legislation comes forth, MADD will push to uphold the current minimum drinking law. However, he noted that it probably won’t be happening soon, as 129 colleges among a nation of thousands is not a significant amount.
Senior Tiffany Chin, who said she believes the drinking age should remain 21, is comforted by this thought, as those among her generation often suffer from or commit DUI violations.
“For those who are 18 and have already started drinking, there’s more potential for them to drive while they’re drinking,” she said. “And, I think three years is a big difference. At 21, you’re a little more mature and you’ve been through a little more of life.”
However, senior Gaston Sanford notes the hypocrisy of the law — a thought with which many of his peers agree.
“If we can go to war and die at age 18, I mean, why not be able to have a little alcohol?” Sanford said.
Whether right or wrong, Benton said he hopes to gain insight into why other college administrators chose to sign, or not sign, the Amethyst Initiative petition at an upcoming American Council on Education (ACE) meeting in two weeks. Benton serves as chair on the Board of Education for ACE.
Hopefully, then, light will be shed on the initiative — and possibly a lasting solution to binge drinking among campus communities can emerge, Benton said.
09-04-2008