The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, September 5, 2008 Page: 6 of 24
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6 NEWS
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the Rice Thresher
Friday, September 5,2008
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Jocelyn Wright
Thresher Staff
As the federal law that has set
the drinking age at 21 comes up for
review next year, college and uni-
versity presidents and chancellors
from across the country have come
together to sign the Amethyst Initia-
tive - begun in July - which advo-
cates an informed and unimpeded
debate to see if the current policy is
working. The initiative, so named
because of the ancient Greek myth
that amethyst would ward off the ef-
fects of drunkenness, states that the
current law has created a culture of
binge-drinking often conducted in
secret that endangers student health
and safety. The initiative currently
has over 120 signatories, including
presidents of some of Rice's peer in-
stitutions, such as Duke University
and Dartmouth University.
Although President David Lee-
bron said he was in favor of a debate
about the merits of the current drink-
ing age, he said he did not sign the
Amethyst Initiative because he felt
it was advocating that the drinking
age should be lowered to 18. Leebron
said he needed more research and
information before he could advo-
cate that position.
"I think it's good to have a policy
debate and revisit the issue to see if
it's working or not, especially since
the United States has a somewhat
unusual policy," Leebron said. "This
puts on us the burden to see if [the
drinking age of 21) is working and to
that degree 1 support it. Universities
are a place of inquiry."
The drinking age was raised from
18 to 21 by the National Minimum
Drinking Age Act in 1984, which
docked 10 percent of the annual fund-
ing for a state's federal highways if it
did not enforce 21 as the minimum
age for purchasing and publicly pos-
sessing alcoholic beverages. The
constitutionality of the law was chal-
lenged in 1987 in the Supreme Court
case South Dakota v. Dole, in which
the state of South Dakota claimed the
policy violated the 21st Amendment.
The constitutionality of the law, how-
ever, was upheld in a 7-2 decision, in
* II * #
which Chief Justice William Rehn-
quist said the use of highway funds
as an incentive to raise the drinking
age is a pressure on - not a regula-
tion of - the states and that therefore
the law did not violate the 10th or
21st Amendments.
The Amethyst Initiative, which
is run by the nonprofit organization
Choose Responsibly, states that the
current policy infantilizes adults
ages 18 through 20 and that it has not
made a significant portion of under-
age drinkers change their behavior.
It also states that the illegality of
drinking for adults under 21 both ex-
acerbates binge drinking and pushes
the behavior behind closed doors
and off-campus, which makes it
more dangerous.
The Amethyst Initiative has been
opposed by several groups, including
Mothers Against Drunk Driving. In a
MADD press release last month, Na-
tional President Laura Dean Mooney
said lowering the drinking age will
lead to more drunk driving. The In-
surance Institute for Highway Safety,
the American Medical Association,
the National Transportation Safety
Board and the Governors Highway
Safety Association are some of the
organizations that have joined MADD
in criticizing the Amethyst Initiative.
Hanszen College Master Wes
Morris said the Amethyst Initiative
brought up two issues that were
closely related but were not the same
and therefore did not have the same
solution: drinking in excess and driv-
ing while intoxicated.
"It's a mistake to collapse one into
the other," Morris said.
Morris said drunken driving al-
ready has a solution, which is that
it is illegal. He said the current laws
should be enforced more rigorously.
Leebron said that since the drink-
ing age was raised at the same time
that much stricter enforcement of
drunken driving laws was enforced,
it is difficult to gauge whether the Na-
tional Minimum Drinking Age Act re-
ally was responsible for the reduction
in drunken driving.
"Did the higher age contribute to
a reduction in fatalities - because
"that's what the statistics say - or was
it a combination of other things?"
Leebron said. "We wouldn't want to
make a policy decision to raise injury
and fatality rates, but it might be the
greater enforcement of drunken-driv-
ing laws that led to the reduction."
Brown College Master Steven Cox
said while he was sympathetic to
MADD's position and felt that they
ought to have a voice at the table, he
felt that the current prohibitionist at-
titude was not working.
"I don't see the current system as
the best solution," Cox said. "What's
the right compromise? I'm not sure,
but I'm much happier putting limits
on automobile use than on the con-
sumption of alcohol."
Baker College sophomore Mina
Fitzpatrick said she had a hard time
understanding the huge time gap be-
tween when students could drive and
when they could drink.
"Maybe we should support public
transportation and raise the driving
age," Fitzpatrick said. "People are
less likely to violate that because of
the monetary risks involved."
Leebron said he found the drink-
ing age of 21 to be problematic, espe-
cially in a university setting.
"I think the 21-year-old drinking
age prevents our ability to carry out
our educational function," Leebron
said. "We can't engage in a dialogue
on how to drink responsibly. It's like
Prohibition. Instead, we have to fo-
cus on the underage use of alcohol to
be unacceptable."
Wiess College Master Mike Gustin
said the main problem with the cur-
rent situation was the hypocrisy, both
at Rice and nationwide.
"There's a wink-wink attitude,"
Gustin said. "The idea behind the
[Amethyst] initiative is to create an
honest, open environment to deal
with issues of subterranean alcohol
consumption."
Leebron said that if the drinking
age were lower, the administration
would be able to engage more can-
didly with students about drinking.
"We could set a good example
of reasonable drinking for students
and show them how to be respon-
sible, while making it very clear that
irresponsible drinking will be dealt
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with very severely," Leebron said.
"We try to do that now, but as part
of the educational process, we could
more effectively convey that drinking
games, initiation ceremonies, drunk
driving and using alcohol as an ex-
cuse are things we are extremely in-
tolerant of."
Did the higher age
contribute to a re-
duction in fatalities
- because that's what
the statistics say - or
was it a combina-
tion of other things?"
Leebron said. "We
wouldn't want to
make a policy deci-
sion to raise injury
and fatality rates, but
it might be the greater
enforcement of drunk-
en-driving laws that
led to the reduction..
David Leebron
President
Leebron said he remembered that
when he was an undergraduate stu-
dent at Harvard University, which
had a residential college system, he
would go over to the master's house
and have sherry.
"It wasn't a separate student cul-
ture," Leebron said. "Most people
drank little and drank responsibly,
but [current legislation] makes it
hard to engage in such conversations
because I cannot say it's OK to drink
a little and responsibly. You cannot
drink at all [if you're underage], and
that's the official position."
Cox said his experience in college,
when drinking at 18 was legal, was
that people drank more frequently be-
cause alcohol was readily available,
but they did so with less intensity.
"The fridge was rarely out of
beer," Cox said. "But it was one or
two beers after homework instead of
half a dozen on a Friday."
Rice alumnus Mark Godard (Sid l))
'07) said the current policies have
contributed to more binge drinking.
"When you turn 21, the social in-
centives to drink don't change dras-
tically; however, being able to drink
legally in public certainly reduces the
incentive to take shots in your closet- ©
like dorm room before heading to pub
or a football game," Godard said. "I
saw significantly more keg-stands,
Everclear shots and other potentially
irresponsible forms of alcohol use
when my only exposure to drinking
was at private, predominantly under- |S) |
age parties, than I do now at 23."
Morris, who was at Rice when the
drinking age changed, said he didn't
think the drinking culture at Rice
changed much after the law went into
effect, however.
"I don't think it changed anything |))|
other than driving drinking under-
ground," Morris said. "The elaborate
system of private and public parties
evolved out of this. Private parties are
supposed to be following the same
rules as public parties, but they prob-
ably don't."
Leebron said while Rice took these
measures to keep its students safe, he
feels students are adults and should
be treated as such.
"[Students] live in a free and
democratic society," Leebron said.
"We're not spying on our students to
see what they're doing in their room
or behind closed doors. We must treat
them like adults. We cannot allow
them to drink under 21, but we must
trust them to behave properly and to
know that any illegal behavior is un-
lawful and carries certain risks."
Gustin said he felt the Alcohol
Policy at Rice was a good system.
"It creates a more trusting envi-
ronment where administrators aren't
police," Gustin said. "Rice is protec-
tive of the environment at the heart of
the college system. We each respect
each other's privacy and turf."
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Chun, Lily & Farmer, Dylan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, September 5, 2008, newspaper, September 5, 2008; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443112/m1/6/: accessed June 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.