9 Vt. college leaders back drinking age initiative
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By Dawson Raspuzzi Rutland Herald - Published: November 28, 2008
Vermont's higher education leaders are in the forefront of a drinking age initiative signed by more than 100 college and university presidents across the nation.
College officials who have signed on to the initiative recognize that the minimum legal drinking age of 21 has proven ineffective and that the effects of lowering the drinking age should be discussed.
Nine Vermont college presidents and the chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges, have signed the Amethyst Initiative, which is spearheaded by former Middlebury College president John McCardell.
Since it was launched in July, 134 college presidents from around the country have signed onto the initiative, which asserts that the 21-year-old minimum drinking age is not working because more young people are drinking irresponsibly in unsafe environments.
The initiative is a project of Choose Responsibility, a nonprofit organization McCardell founded in 2007, after he left Middlebury in 2004.
While Choose Responsibility proposes lowering the drinking age to 18, supporters of the Amethyst Initiative don't necessarily support a change in the law.
In Vermont, the presidents of Bennington College, Castleton State College, College of St. Joseph, Johnson State College, Lyndon State College, Middlebury College, New England Culinary Institute, Vermont Law School and Vermont Technical College have all signed the Amethyst Initiative.
Many of Vermont's college leaders said they would like the minimum drinking age lowered to 18, the legal age for voting, serving in public office, signing contracts, marrying and serving in the armed forces.
Frank Miglorie, the president at College of St. Joseph in Rutland, put it this way. "The primary motivator for me came back to the core belief I have that if you're 18 years old in our society you gain full citizenship so to speak — you have a voice, you have a vote … and in my mind, it seems reasonable that the opportunity to drink alcoholic beverages ought to be attached to that age as well.
"Supporting this concept that people be allowed to drink legally in our state and our country at age 18 in no way provides them with an endorsement to be irresponsible in doing that," he said. "But if someone wants to drink and be irresponsible, I don't think that's specific to age."
Castleton State College President David Wolk said teaching responsible drinking in an educational setting is a safer alternative for young adults who might otherwise put themselves in potentially dangerous situations.
Wolk, who has been an educator for 27 years, said the 21-year-old drinking age minimum is ineffective.
"I've long supported making changes to move in a responsible way, having worked with high school and college students I believe that a graduated approach to legalizing drinking at age 18 makes sense," Wolk said.
Miglorie said educating young people about drinking earlier in life instead of just saying "don't drink until you are 21" and letting them fend for themselves would likely reduce the amount of dangerous binge drinking in the country.
McCardell said the first step is to ask Congress to reverse the National Minimum Drinking Age Act passed in 1984, which imposes a 10 percent reduction of federal highway appropriations for states that set the drinking age under 21.
In Vermont, that would mean losing out on approximately $17 million of federal funding. With so much money on the line, states are unable to debate the issue objectively, McCardell said.
McCardell said education officials are publicizing their concerns about the issue now because Congress will reauthorize the transportation bill next year.
The president of Vermont Technical College, Ty Handy, said he endorses a debate about the issue.
"I know my college kids are going to engage in some of that behavior and what worries me the most is if they are forced away from the campus they are much more likely to be hurt," Handy said.
"I've been here three years and the year before I got here two students were killed in an alcohol-related accident … they were not on campus, they were 30 minutes away. That sort of incident is devastating to a college," Handy said.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving has publicly opposed the Amethyst Initiative.
MADD cites studies showing the number of alcohol-related driving fatalities has decreased dramatically since the National Minimum Drinking Age Act passed in 1984. The nonprofit advocacy group estimates 1,000 lives have been saved each year since the law was passed.
"Any talk of lowering the drinking age is simply bad public policy because research is showing us that the 21 law saves lives," said MADD spokesman David DeIuliis. "There's no reason to lower the age, we've been there, done that, and it didn't work and there's no point in going back there for the sake of an experiment, it's just irresponsible."
McCardell said the decreases in fatalities are likely due to a number of factors including safer vehicles, airbags, seat-belt laws and more vigorous law enforcement.
Although McCardell said some lives may have been saved under the law, many more deaths have resulted because of it.
"You can't simply measure the effectiveness of this law by deaths on the highway," McCardell said.
He pointed out another study that shows more than 1,000 people age 18-24 die annually due to alcohol-related incidents off the highways.
Because of the conflicting statistical information, many presidents, including Middlebury College President Ronald Liebowitz, signed the Amethyst Initiative because they want to see independent groups conduct independent research.
"Middlebury College supports the efforts to search for a better method of addressing alcohol abuse on college campuses. I am not prepared to support the lowering of the legal drinking age unless data emerge that support this change and there is further discussion," Leibowitz wrote in a statement.
Handy also said he wants to review additional research before he makes a commitment to a change in the law.
"I'm not convinced that the studies performed on this are valid because they are performed by groups with a vested interest," he said. "There are college kids dying weekly, and probably daily, after they've been drinking and I hope we can develop some good data and take an honest look at it."
Contact Dawson Raspuzzi at dawson.raspuzzi@rutlandherald.com.
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