The problem of excessive drinking at colleges and universities nationwide raises myriad questions:
• Are underage students drinking excessively because it is prohibited?
• Would lowering, or raising, the legal age lead to more responsible drinking?
• Has penalizing states – by giving them 10 percent less annual federal highway money if they lower the drinking age below 21 – stifled the debate about the drinking age?
College and university presidents and chancellors are debating those issues as part of the Amethyst Initiative. Many have signed a public statement that says the problem of irresponsible drinking by young people continues, and that a dangerous culture of binge drinking exists on many campuses.
The Amethyst Initiative, launched last year, is a project of Choose Responsibility founder John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt.
The initiative does not advocate a specific drinking age. Signers support informed debate on the drinking age and are asking elected officials to weigh the consequences of current alcohol policies and invite new ideas about how best to help young adults make responsible decisions about alcohol.
A total of 135 presidents and chancellors have signed the statement, including those from Duke, Johns Hopkins and Tufts universities. Only one from Maine – President Leonard Tyler of Maine Maritime Academy – has signed.
Tyler said last week that he signed because he believes there has been a lack of discussion about college drinking, not because he thinks the drinking age should be lowered to 18.
"My reason for signing on to it was, 'Let's have an open and frank discussion about it,' " Tyler said. "Obviously, 18 didn't work, and I'm not sure 21 works; and what is the age? I don't know."
Maine Maritime tests randomly for substances because students use boats and are involved in the shipping industry and other activities, Tyler said.
"We have a very, very stringent alcohol policy. Three strikes and you're out," he said.
Colby College President William Adams has not signed because he does not believe that changing the drinking age will alter substantially what concerns college officials most: abusive behavior involving alcohol.
Colby is investigating an April 12 incident in which an alcohol-related melee resulted in the arrests of two students.
Adams said he has studied the Amethyst Initiative and has discussed it with McCardell, but disagrees with him. Adams believes that those who support the initiative want to move toward changing the drinking age.
McCardell said he believes Tyler, of Maine Maritime, has the right idea.
"If you read the Amethyst statement, it doesn't say the age should be lowered; it simply says we need to have frank and honest discussion about how well we are served by laws on the books," McCardell said. "In my view, the change that needs to come is not to lower the age, but change the rule of the 10 percent (highway money) penalty."
The federal government has no authority to set a national drinking age, yet there is a catch if a state sets the drinking age below 21, he said. States are essentially forced to keep it at 21 if they want to get full highway funding.
"We have de facto a national drinking age, and what I think is of concern to Amethyst is, this 10 percent condition has been a very effective obstacle to any debate," McCardell said.
While supporters of the drinking-age law, passed in 1984, say it has led to a decrease in highway deaths, McCardell said that is not the case. Highway deaths have declined, but that trend started in 1982 – two years before the law changed, he said. Some college presidents apparently believe otherwise, however.
University of Maine at Farmington President Theodora Kalikow also has...
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