By Reid Collins on 8.22.08 @ 12:07AM
Will lowering the drinking age improve student performance?
If you were told that 115 University leaders, many of them
presidents of prestigious colleges, had signed on to a petition
that calls for consideration of lowering the legal drinking age in
the United States to 18 you would ask the informant what he had
been smoking. That is for later -- but not much later.
Yes, these higher educators are signatories to the Amethyst
Initiative, which on the surface wants a "discussion" of lowering
the age. The Initiative is said to be the brainchild of former
Middlebury College prexy John McCardell. He has allies in the
chiefs of Duke, Dickinson, Maryland, and dozens more. The
presidential thinking seems to be, "If we legalize it, then those
little cherubs won't be as likely to abuse it."
"It's a very serious problem on college campuses, and it just
seems to get worse and worse," says William Kirwan, chancellor of
the University System of Maryland.
Safety experts are shocked. The legal drinking age of 21 saves
about 900 lives a year, they claim.
As for the prexy prediliction, Laura Dean-Mooney of Mothers
Against Drunk Driving says people look to college presidents for
their "leadership role on their campuses. It just seems like they
didn't do enough homework to look at the science on this."
Trouble is, they don't have to study science to see the problem.
All they have to do is attend a fraternity party some night or walk
into a dorm.
The "leadership role" has been abandoned long ago. University
Presidents are there to raise money, curry favor with successful
alumni, and look the other way. The fact that drinking 18-year-olds
are violating the law is simply another example of university
negligence in upholding a well-understood law.
If an 18-year drinking age were established, how long would it
be for marijuana to make it onto the menu? Like booze, it is in
widespread use on campuses. Why not make it legal and allow the Ole
U of Grass prexy to sleep better at night? Habit has a way of
institutionalizing itself. How many if not all of the U signatories
now have coed dormitories? Doesn't booze and grass make for natural
accompaniments to whatever comes natural in those environments?
Then the school adult leadership could concentrate entirely on
fund-raising, firing the athletic director, and cosseting the
legislature.
The Amethyst advocates are not without backers. The
Washington Post's columnist Marc Fisher claims that lowering the age would lead to
moderation in drinking among the teenagers. His apparent theory: if
it ain't illegal, it ain't fun. As for saving lives, Fisher claims:
"Anti-drunken driving activists hide behind the faux-clarity of
highway death statistics."
If there is a certain thrill for an 18-year-old to drink three
years before the legal age, what happens if the Amethysts have
their way? It doesn't take string theory to deduce that 18 minus 3
is 15.
topics:
Environment, Law, NATO
