College officials and students seem to have very different perspectives on the merits of the Amethyst Initiative, a proposal by college presidents urging elected officials to “rethink the drinking age.” Students are inclined to support the measure, while administration officials are more cautious. President Patrick White says he will not sign the petition.
“The Amethyst Initiative has been probably misunderstood to lower the drinking age to 18, when it's really a proposal to consider proposing lowering the drinking age to 18,” White said. “Perhaps it was intentional. That's one reason I didn't want to sign it. I'm not sure that's the solution.”
The Amethyst Initiative is a statement that argues the ineffectiveness of current drinking laws on minors, specifically college students. It was conceived by John McCardell, President Emeritus of Middlebury College, and other presidents of small liberal arts schools who wanted to reopen a public debate about the drinking age. Although the initiative endorses no specific policies, the central focus has been the inadequacy of the current legal drinking age of 21 in curbing the “culture of dangerous, clandestine binge-drinking.” The statement has been signed by 130 college presidents all over the country, including Butler University President Bobby Fong. The full statement can be found here.
Many Wabash student think the laws aimed at reducing the consumption of alcoholic beverages by individuals under the age of 21 actually increases the consumption alcohol by those individuals. They believe lowering the drinking age to 19, 18, or even 16 would decrease the negative effects of the prohibition, including binge drinking and alcohol dependency. Sophomore Will Weber called it the “forbidden fruit syndrome”: the idea that people are encouraged to engage in certain activities because those activities are discouraged or illegal.
“I think that the Amethyst Initiative is a well-thought out proposition,” Weber said. “My personal, non-scientific opinion is that a huge part of the drinking problem, especially the overindulgence, is due to "forbidden fruit syndrome." And then there is always the fact that at age18 an American citizen can vote, form contracts, and die for his country, but he can't drink. The law basically says 'We trust you with an assault rifle, but not with a 12oz bottle.' I'd rather lower the drinking age to 16 than 18, but I'll be satisfied as long as it comes down.”
Weber's sentiments were closer to the norm than the periphery of students. Freshman AJ Hudson said knowing he could drink whenever he wanted made alcohol less appealing to him.
“I always had alcohol available,” Hudson said. “My dad even gave it to me when I was a little kid. I am now completely straight-edged. Most teen alcoholism is just a pathetic attempt at breaking the rules, fighting the parentals.”
Junior Chris Beard even did his own research.
“I think that this is a long-overdue piece of common sense,” Beard said of the Amethyst Initiative. “If we've got at least 40% of college age students reporting signs of alcohol dependency [according to IndyStar] and less than a 4% rate of alcoholism among adults in recent years, I doubt it's a sign of success for these anachronistic prohibition laws that keep soldiers and voters from figuring out how to drink responsibly. Once drinking is no longer something for 21-year-old 'grownups,' we'll have less of a problem with college students going out of their way to binge drink and prove something to their buds.”
Research by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism support's Beard's claim. According to the Institute's 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Condition, the rate of alcohol dependence, or alcoholism, for adults 18 and older has decreased from 4.38 percent to 3.81 percent. But even as alcohol dependence has decreased over the past decade, alcohol abuse has been on the rise. The study found rates of alcohol abuse and dependence were higher among men than women.
Although many students agree that the drinking age should be decreased, some students disagreed in part or in full.
“I don't think it's a good idea,” said Chris Pearcy '10, who said he has been drinking since his freshman year of high school. “It expects a lot of responsibility out of kids. Maybe it could work overtime, but it would have a rocky start.”
Senior Tyler Gibson threw down the gauntlet on drinking debate, arguing that whatever is decided should be enforced in a pragmatically and evenly.
“The availability of alcohol on college campuses guarantees that consumption under 21 isn’t going to go away,” Gibson said. “As I see it there are really only two viable options: Keep the drinking age at 21 and begin enforcing the laws evenly or...lower age to 18 and impose very stiff punishments for those who furnish individuals under the age of 18 with alcohol. It seems quite ridiculous that in Bloomington or West Lafayette MIPA is $400 ticket, yet somewhere else it is handled by jail time and AA classes. In my opinion either it should be treated like a traffic ticket or like a criminal act. The real problem is that we as a society aren’t willing to deal with the problem pragmatically; we want to discuss anything but the reality of the world in which we live.”
Dean of Student Michael Raters said he disagrees with the “reality” assumed by the Amethyst Initiative and the logic that underlies it. He said those do not drink or who drink responsibility never get noticed. The norm, he said, is the person who does not let alcohol have a negative effect on his life or those around him.
“The thing that bothers me about the binge drinking point as it relates to the Amethyst Initiative is that it almost assumes that college students binge drink; that that's an acceptable statement,” said Raters, who opposes the Amethyst Initiative and does not think it will solve problems associated with underage drinking. “The statistics would indicate that there are college students who binge drink. Perhaps more than the average adult. That said, to presuppose that college students who binge drink are the norm is completely false. The normal behavior of a college student is one who does not binge drink. It just gets a lot of attention. You don't notice the guy who is drinking a coke and not drinking alcohol or sitting in his room studying instead of being at the party.”
Raters also said he supports public and peer education by groups like the W.A.R. Council, and that groups like it should do more.
President White said the problem lies with the drinking culture, which some students joined before enrolling in college. He challenged the notion that the purpose of drinking should be to become drunk, and he encouraged Wabash men to look out for one another. With the issue of drinking, he said the gentleman's rule can be also be instructive.
“There is a problem – binge drinking, underage,” White said. “What evidence I've seen in my career, I don't think [lowering the drinking age] would solve problem. The other thing is they mention disrespect for law – false ids. I don't think you create respect for law by changing law to let you do what the law forbids. I don't know bringing the drinking age down to 18 would solve the problem."
"As a gentleman and a citizen, one should be cognizant of obeying the rules and laws of the land. Hard to be a gentleman or citizen when you are drunk.”