Local college leaders debate drinking age

By Christa Desrets

Published: September 6, 2008

One the one hand, Sweet Briar President Betsy Muhlenfeld feels obligated to advocate that no underage drinking happen on her campus.

That’s the law.

On the other hand, she knows that a majority of students drink, oftentimes excessively, even though most don’t turn 21 until their junior or senior year.

That’s the reality, she said, and it causes quite the dilemma for college presidents.

“It’s happening,” she said. “You know it’s happening — and how can you best combat the worst effects of that? All of us really struggle with how to deal with the cultural phenomenon (of drinking).”

Muhlenfeld is one of 129 college presidents and chancellors in the U.S. who recently have signed on to a statement calling for debate on lowering the minimum drinking age.

The intent of the initiative is to create a discussion about excessive drinking among college students. Many supporters say a drinking age of 21 encourages binge drinking among college students who have not reached that legal limit.

Sweet Briar is the only local school supporting the measure, but students from several area colleges favor lowering the drinking age.

Launched in July, the Amethyst Initiative has become a hot topic in recent weeks both among supporters and opponents of lowering the drinking age.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, for example, has countered with statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation. One study released in 2001 states that the rate of underage drunken driving has decreased more than 50 percent since the ’80s, when states adopted the minimum legal drinking age of 21.

“I think they’re failing to look at all the data, the research and evidence out there,” said Chris Konschak, executive director of MADD in Virginia. He said that raising the drinking age “saved over 1,000 lives a year in that age range of 18 to 21.”

“I understand for colleges and universities, making sure that people are in compliance would be a lot easier (if the age was lowered),” Konschak said. “But the reality is — how much do we value the lives of our young people?”

Muhlenfeld acknowledged that statistics show less drunken driving among youth now than when drinking ages were lower. But that may be due to other reasons, she said, such as a shift in attitudes about driving drunk and safer cars and highways.

“There really are a number of factors, and we’re not sure what to attribute to what,” Muhlenfeld said. “I think there’s no question that raising the drinking age has saved some lives. But by contributing to this society of binge drinking, (it has) destroyed some lives.”

Muhlenfeld said she supports more research on the impact of binge drinking specifically.

She also advocates exploring options such as raising the legal driving age, implementing alcohol education programs, enforcing stricter drunk-driving laws, “and a host of things that could help us as a society pull away from the notion of binge drinking as a rite of passage for teenagers.”

At other Central Virginia colleges, students and administrators carry a wide range of opinions on the matter.

Randolph College is following both sides of the debate, said Dean of Students Sarah Swager.

Although Lynchburg College President Kenneth Garren has not signed on to the initiative, he also supports more research on the impact of changing the drinking age, he said.

“If there is a better model out there, I’d love to see it change,” he said. “But only if there’s confidence in it — not just to change it because we know there are pieces that don’t work.”

Liberty University, which prohibits students from drinking alcohol no matter what their age, has a different take on the issue.

“Obviously if it did change, I think it would make alcohol that much more easily accessible, even to our students,” said Mark Hine, vice president for student affairs, who is not in favor of lowering the drinking age.

“I’m really failing to understand how that would control binge drinking ... I think that extra three years gives people time to settle down and really make better decisions at 21 than they would at 18, when they’re away from home for the first time.”

Konschak said lowering the age to 18 also may compound problems by legalizing alcohol for many seniors in high school who have underage friends.

“It adds a whole new dynamic,” he said. “If it’s 18, why isn’t it 16 … there comes a point where you have to set some limits to protect society, and we think that the 21 drinking age is pretty well documented as a good place to have it.”

But many area students who are in that age range disagree.

LC sophomore Dianna Borow based her views on trips to Germany and France, where the legal drinking age is 16.

“It seems to me that people have more respect for it growing up in Europe,” she said. “Here, they can’t just have one drink. It’s more — let’s go out and get trashed.”

The 19-year-old, who is a member of student government, said the group already has discussed the drinking age extensively in recent weeks.

“Ninety percent of the kids thought it should be lowered,” she said.

Borow’s friend Kelly Watson, who also is 19, had a different view.

“If they do that I think kids, especially college kids, would go crazy,” she said.

At Sweet Briar, 21-year-old Megan Behrle supports lowering the drinking age to 18.

“I think it really encourages binge drinking, and that causes a lot more problems,” she said of the current age. “Alcohol is so readily available on college campuses, no matter your age. There’s always a way to find it if you want to drink.”

Randolph College student Kody Roza has similar ideas.

“If you were to lower the drinking age to 18, you would have people drinking more responsibly because it would be legal and out in the open,” the 20-year-old said.

He also shared an opinion that temporarily lowered the drinking age in many states during the Vietnam War.

“If people are allowed to join the military and die for our country at age 18, how can you tell them that they’re not mature enough to drink also?”

Part-time Randolph student Ann Schneider has seen the issue from a couple of views. When she first went to college in the ’90s, she had many underage friends who would drink, although she chose not to.

Now as a returning student at age 28, she hears about the same thing.

“Maybe if it wasn’t seen as so forbidden, people would use it in more moderation,” she said.

Muhlenfeld said that these types of conversations are just what she hoped for when she signed the Amethyst Initiative.

“What we wanted to do was actually call people’s attention to this and say, ‘Look, we really need to know more about this,’ ” she said. “The initial response was a little bit knee-jerk, but what I’m getting now is, it’s digging a bit deeper.”