University presidents make national push to lower drinking age
Ben Kleppinger
Issue date: 8/28/08 Section: News
Over 120 university presidents across the nation have said they would like to talk about lowering the minimum drinking age.
A Web site called the Amethyst Initiative has collected the signatures of at least 128 university presidents on a statement claiming the legal drinking age of 21 has allowed "a culture of dangerous, clandestine 'binge-drinking'" to develop.
The Amethyst Initiative is a project of an organization called Choose Responsibility. Grace Kronenberg, the assistant to the director of Choose Responsibility, said the organization notified 2,000 university and college presidents in July, asking them to sign on the statement.
The statement, which can be found at amethystinitiative.org, is also critical of a federal law penalizing states that lower the legal drinking age below 21 by cutting 10 percent of the state's federal highway appropriation.
"The blackmail of that law…has stopped any state from considering a lower drinking age," Kroenberg said.
Kronenberg said Choose Responsibility doesn't want to instantly lower the legal drinking age; it simply wants to start an open discussion about what the legal drinking age should be.
"A cultural change is needed to address the problem of heavy drinking," Kronenberg said. "Our goal remains just bringing this to the nation's attention."
Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been one of the biggest opponents of the Amethyst Initiative. Tara McGuire, the state-wide youth coordinator for MADD Kentucky, said large amounts of evidence support MADD's stance that keeping the legal drinking age at 21, and enforcing it, prevents underage drinking and saves lives.
Rather than lowering the legal drinking age, McGuire said keeping parents involved at the high school and college levels is a good way to end binge drinking.
"Supervision is going down. Parental involvement is going down. And [the students] are going into this high risk college atmosphere," she said.
A Web site called the Amethyst Initiative has collected the signatures of at least 128 university presidents on a statement claiming the legal drinking age of 21 has allowed "a culture of dangerous, clandestine 'binge-drinking'" to develop.
The Amethyst Initiative is a project of an organization called Choose Responsibility. Grace Kronenberg, the assistant to the director of Choose Responsibility, said the organization notified 2,000 university and college presidents in July, asking them to sign on the statement.
The statement, which can be found at amethystinitiative.org, is also critical of a federal law penalizing states that lower the legal drinking age below 21 by cutting 10 percent of the state's federal highway appropriation.
"The blackmail of that law…has stopped any state from considering a lower drinking age," Kroenberg said.
Kronenberg said Choose Responsibility doesn't want to instantly lower the legal drinking age; it simply wants to start an open discussion about what the legal drinking age should be.
"A cultural change is needed to address the problem of heavy drinking," Kronenberg said. "Our goal remains just bringing this to the nation's attention."
Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been one of the biggest opponents of the Amethyst Initiative. Tara McGuire, the state-wide youth coordinator for MADD Kentucky, said large amounts of evidence support MADD's stance that keeping the legal drinking age at 21, and enforcing it, prevents underage drinking and saves lives.
Rather than lowering the legal drinking age, McGuire said keeping parents involved at the high school and college levels is a good way to end binge drinking.
"Supervision is going down. Parental involvement is going down. And [the students] are going into this high risk college atmosphere," she said.