In what’s shaping up to be more than an academic debate, many local universities and colleges are joining a national initiative to lower the legal drinking age.

The presidents of Towson and Johns Hopkins universities and the College of Notre Dame are among those who signed the Amethyst Initiative. But Loyola University’s president, the Rev. Brian Linnane, is notable in his absence.

The Amethyst Initiative is a public statement, signed by more than 100 college presidents and chancellors nationally, arguing that the current legal drinking age of 21 is not working.

Specifically, they say, “it has created a culture of dangerous binge drinking on their campuses,” according to the initiative’s Web site, www.amethystinitiative.org.

The signers call for debate on the issue and “for elected officials to weigh all the consequences of current alcohol policies and to invite new ideas on how best to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol use,” the Web site states.

“The presidents are saying this is an important issue from where they sit,” said Dennis O’Shea, a spokesman for Hopkins.

But not all universities are signing on simply to lower the drinking age. Hopkins wants to help spur a larger dialogue aimed at curbing binge drinking by means other than an age restriction, O’Shea said.

By itself, “the 21-year age isn’t working,” he said.

But some community leaders disagree.

Ed Kilcullen, president of the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations and a resident of Towson Manor Village, which has a high percentage of college-age renters, doesn’t see how lowering the drinking age is going to address the problems that alcohol causes.

“They are saying the current age isn’t working,” he said. “But nobody knows if lowering the drinking age will work better. It certainly is not going to help off-campus drinking behavior.

“It’s amazing that these presidents of institutions of higher learning don’t cite any research or offer any compelling evidence.”

Towson University President Robert Caret supported the initiative out of concern for its students, spokesman Marina Cooper said. The school has been aggressive for the past 15 years in fighting binge drinking — though Towson students are no more prone to alcohol abuse than their peers nationally, Cooper said.
 
According to the National Collegiate Health Assessment, about 50 percent of students said they participated in binge drinking, which is defined as five or more drinks in one setting. About 46 percent of the Towson students surveyed said they had at least that many.
 
Cooper said binge drinking has been a stubborn issue.

“The problem and culture of binge drinking seem to continue,” said Cooper, despite the university’s efforts and the drinking age, so other steps must be considered.

Mary Pat Seurkamp, president of the College of Notre Dame, said she signed on to the initiative not so much because of concerns at her college, but because of problems nationwide. Binge drinking isn’t as much of a problem at women’s colleges as at coed universities, because they tend to attract more academically focused students, she said.

Seurkamp said prior jobs at Gannon University in Erie, Pa., and St. John Fischer College in Rochester, N.Y., exposed her to problems at coed institutions.

“I signed on to it because it’s an important issue in national higher education,” Seurkamp said. “The current situation is not working effectively and not addressing the problems we thought it would address.”

At least one area school is taking a wait-and-see approach.

Linnane, president of Loyola, refrained from signing the statement, and said he doesn’t object to lowering the drinking age per se, but wants to see more research done on the topic before he commits.

“We’re scholars,” he said. “We shouldn’t fly by the seat of our pants.” 

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user comments (1)

user umdgrad08 says...

I read in the UMD College Park newspaper (The Diamondback) that some bars were raising their floor price on drinking specials (50 cent rails, etc.). I think raising the prices would definitely have an impact on binge drinking at the bar, but might encourage drinking before going to the bar. As a recent UMD graduate, I can say that most of my binge drinking (and that was a considerable amount) was done before I even turned 21. Ages 18-20 were my big binge drinking years because I was new to the whole college and drinking scene then and had a fake ID that got me into all the College Park bars. By the time I turned 21, I was tired of that whole scene and had realized being an alcoholic was not for me anymore and it was time for me to get serious about school. I do sometimes wonder how my drinking habits would have differed if I had waited until I turned 21 to experience college bars. Some of my friends who did wait until they turned 21 to go to the bars were immediately infatuated with them and did the same thing I did when I first started going to bars at 18. The difference was that I had wasted earlier years of my life binge drinking and being seduced by the lure of the bars. I think this was better for me in the long run because, in my opinion, time in school as a senior is more valuable than it is as a freshman. I support lowering the drinking age, but realize it is a very complex issue. This comment was just meant to share my personal experience as a college binge drinker.

Posted 9:18 AM, 08.26.08

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