In July 2008, the Amethyst Initiative rekindled the debate over the 21-year-old drinking age. Amethyst is supported by 129 college presidents and chancellors across the nation and includes Duke University’s President Richard Brodhead among its signatories. Erksine Bowles, president of the UNC system, issued a statement declaring that the UNC Board of Governors would not support the initiative.
This is the wrong way to address the minimum legal drinking age. University presidents and chancellors must do more than issue statements encouraging discussion. Delaying debate on this issue is pointless.
Students have strong opinions on the drinking age, and as institutions, universities need to act as an advocacy group to push for a frank discussion of minimum legal drinking age legislation.
The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 required all states to raise their minimum age for the purchase and public possession of alcohol to 21 or lose 10 percent of federal highway funding. This law sparked a lasting debate about the drinking age, particularly on college campuses, where underage drinking is endemic.
Unlike other interest groups, students lack a powerful political presence – their opinions on issues like the drinking age often go unheard. The colleges and universities they attend, however, are respected institutions with an important voice in policy debates.
The drinking age debate is something that needs to be addressed quickly, and students need to push University administrators to stand for an honest, informed debate on underage alcohol laws.
Furthermore, existing studies on the effectiveness of drinking age legislation at best offer an incomplete picture. There are still questions about which alcohol laws are enforced, which laws actually reduce underage drinking and what other variables might explain decreases in fatal crashes involving underage drinkers.
Universities are ideal for researching these questions – they are academic institutions intended to conduct research and hot spots for underage drinking.
It’s been 24 years since the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed. Now it’s time to see if the laws have lived up to expectations, and universities need to lead that charge.
