There is a motion from approximately 100 college presidents to lower the drinking age back to 18. This includes universities such as Duke, Morehouse, Ohio State, and Dartmouth. Presidents generally cited reasons of inconsistency from the student body as far as following the law, they understand that students commonly evade the law and apparently it is a cumbersome rule for them to enforce. This motion has been building steam for about a year. The presidents also used the rhetoric of "too young to drink, but old enough to fight for your country".
However every president has not jumped on board, Donna Shalala, president of the "U" (Miami Univ.) remembers when the drinking age was 18 and she apparently thinks progress has been made. Shalala was also on president Clinton's staff as the secretary of health as well. Also MAAD (no surprise here) spoke up as ardent proponents against the lowering of the drinking age, insisting that universities are taking a back door and avoiding the problem. Also insinuating that lowering the age would alleviate them of the onus of policing their campuses for underage drinking and not help make campuses a safer place.
I do not know if lowering the age would quell any problems around college campuses. However, I do know that it does create two different populations and with everyone amalgamated it is extremely tough to police everyone differently. If universities want to help then perhaps they just have to be a little more animate about enforcing their rules. Its not something that can totally be resolved without intruding on the privacy of the students. It should be interesting to see how this one plays out. Alcohol is overrated anyway, they need to make illegal to drink juice until you twenty one, then everyone will get on the healthy bandwagon trying to sneak orange juice into the dorms. That's really how you solve the problem!
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Wow, Is this really how you solve the problem. I think this is the exact reason why we all messed up when it comes to authorities. We so used to getting our way when people get tired of just dealing with it they give in. I dont think this will make the problem better. Its going ot get worse. i wonder how the parents feel about it?
Well MAAD was encouraging parents to think about not sending their children to some of these schools because we know the rules won't be strictly enforced there.
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