 "Photo: Jesse DeFlorio")
More than three months have past since John McCardell, the former president of Middlebury College in Vermont and founder of Choose Responsibility wrote the Amethyst Initiative, a petition among college and university presidents to reopen the discussion about the effectiveness of the drinking age of 21.
As 130 presidents signed the public statement since the release of the initiative, Loyola president Fr. Brian Linnane withheld his name.
"Why I haven't [signed] is not because I am opposed to a dialogue around the issue; this is a university [where] we should be able to discuss anything," said Linnane, who was vacationing during the release of the letter. "My concern has been that how it came across was as advocacy for [the drinking age] to change and advocacy for it to change because the perception of it is not working," said Linnane.
Although the initiative does not call for a direct change in policy, the foundation of the statement derived from the belief that the current drinking age is not working and only enhances the problems of binge drinking and dangerous activities involving alcohol on college campuses.
The main issue that discouraged Fr. Linnane from participating in the movement was the lack of research provided in the statement that aimed to prove that a change in age might be beneficial to the safety of the students. "It's a very complex question and a challenging one to universities," he said.
"I've learned that research is important to look at because otherwise we're just talking about anecdotes," said Jan Williams, the Director of Alcohol and Drug Education and Support Services. "People who go abroad will visit certain countries and find the drinking age is 16…they see a lot less people going out and getting drunk than they perhaps might see at Loyola. But that's just one person's anecdote."
"I worry that rolling back the age is sort of panacea because you can throw up your hands and say, 'Well, it's legal! There's nothing you can do!' It sort of takes it off the plate of the individual president or vice president of student affairs," said Linnane.
In fact, a study composed by the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs and the United States Monitoring the Future in 2003 showed that certain notions about binge drinking in Europe may be incorrect. After anonymous self-administered school surveys were distributed among students from ages 15-16 in the United States and also in 35 countries in Europe, the studies showed that a higher percentage of binge drinking and intoxication problems occurred in Europe. With the exception of Turkey, almost all of the European countries showed a larger percentage of the students consuming five or more alcoholic beverages in a row, as well as a higher rates of intoxication.
Controversy heightened after the release of the Amethyst Initiative, as organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving shared their strong disagreement with even the thought of a discussion, calling for presidents to remove their signature and put the issue aside.
According to a study done by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the number of deaths caused by alcohol-related car crashes decreased since 1982, before Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which inflicted a ten percent tax penalty of a states federal highway approbation on any state that implemented a drinking age lower than 21.
But still, arguments arise as to what makes the drinking culture in college one of competition, secrecy and excessiveness. "I think it's very smart that the presidents are looking into this because binge drinking has turned into quite an issue since we changed the drinking age," said Elizabeth Leik, professor in the Writing Department.
"I believe there needs to be a careful discussion among national leaders examining whether there are more effective approaches to address student behavior around the use of alcohol," said Dr. Mary Pat Seurkamp, President of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, who is among the signatories of the initiative. "As educators, we have a responsibility to raise questions about how best to foster responsible student behavior."
Williams, however, worries that the change of age will not change the culture at all. "It's pretty clear that those who are going to binge drink and drink irresponsibly…a lot of those have had those tendencies before going to college," he said. "The whole culture and society may have to be changed."
Many argue that the lowering of the drinking age would keep students on campus and allow the possibility to have a pub for students to go to but both Williams and Linnane anticipated problems with that possibility.
"Folks at Loyola have had a fantasy that if we had a drinking age at 18 then we could have a pub on campus, and we could have professors and administrators sitting down with students and having a few beers and modeling responsible drinking behavior. And that would resolve the binge drinking issues, but I don't see that as particularly helpful," says Williams. "My idea from talking to hundreds of students is that students may sit down and have a beer with professors and then go out and do their binge drinking and get drunk. It would be wonderful if it would work, but it's just kind of a fantasy."
The word amethyst derives from Amethyst in Greek mythology, a young girl, who became subject to the wrath of Dionysus after he became intoxicated with red wine. She cried to goddess Diane for help, who then turned her into a white stone. When Dionysus heard what happened, he wept and spilled his wine over the rock, turning it purple.The gemstone amethyst serves to be a reminder of the negative effects of intoxication.
The signatories include presidents from universities and colleges in the Baltimore area, including Johns Hopkins University, Goucher College, The College of Notre Dame of Maryland and Towson University. Acclaimed universities such as Dartmouth College, Duke University, Fairfield University and Colgate University are also on the list.
"It could just be a thing that is so ingrained on our culture, you know to just 'get wasted,' for the sake of getting wasted, whether [we] are 18 or 21," said Alex Hollis, '09, President of Student Government.
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