A panel on drinking age reform brought 343 people together at Ball State University on Tuesday night.
In John R. Emens Auditorium, the Debate Immersive Project and The College of Communication, Information and the Media hosted Responsible Drinking Redefined. The forum consisted of three panelists in a question-and-answer session about alcohol issues on college campuses. The three panelists, John McCardell, Sarah Mart and Dawn Watkins, offered perspectives regarding the efficiency of the drinking age limitation in the United States. McCardell, founder of the Amethyst Initiative and President Emeritus of Middlebury College in Vermont, said in his opening statement that he questioned whether the law was working on its own terms and that serious unintended consequences possibly warranted a change in the law.
"We are driving underage drinkers to clandestine locations," McCardell said. "We need to set up an environment for students that is conducive to avoiding harm."
Watkins, vice president of student affairs and dean of Washington and Lee University in Virginia said she agreed with McCardell on the dangerous consequences of the present drinking age.
Both McCardell and Watkins said that in addition to implementing better educational programs on responsible alcohol consumption, they agree to a proposal of a multi-faceted licensing system that would allow 18- to 20-year-old high school graduates to consume alcoholic beverages.
Sarah Mart, a public health activist from Syracuse, N.Y., said she disagreed with the other panelists on lowering the drinking age. She said statistics have shown that alcohol-related automobile fatalities have declined since 1984 when Congress passed the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Act. She also said the drinking age was lowered based upon research showing that drinking by 18- to 20-year-olds is harmful to their mental development and that lowering the drinking age would increase risky behavior.
McCardell said that although alcohol fatalities have declined since the bill passed, it does not take into account safer cars and the requirement of seat belts. He also said the fatalities off the road caused by alcohol have sharply increased since 1984.
All three panelists agreed abstinence only programs are ineffective and that issues like binge drinking and alcohol toxicity can only be addressed with preventative measures and proper educational programs that teach students early on in their education about alcohol.
The Minimum Legal Drinking Age Act goes up for renewal this year and the Amethyst Initiative have been inviting presidents from colleges all around the country to sign a document stating that they will engage in a conversation about lowering the legal drinking age. To date, out of the 2,000 presidents invited, only 130 have signed on.
Despite the numbers, one student, Jason Ehizokhale, said he found the forum reassuring.
"I think it's great that there are people that aren't afraid to look at the larger picture of the issue of underage drinking," Ehizokhale said. "They're not letting the fact that they are challenging the status quo inhibit their pursuit for a better solution."
Phil Bremen, assistant professor of telecommunications at Ball State University and moderator of the forum, said he was not taking sides but he felt the number of signatures for the Amethyst Initiative did tell the story.
"It is still a potent issue, politically, in the corridors of power," Bremen said.
Despite opposition from the presidents of many schools, including Ball State, Purdue University and Indiana University, McCardell said the status quo needed to change and that alcohol was an unavoidable reality in the lives of students 18 to 20.
"We have two choices," McCardell said. "We can try to change the reality, or we can create the safest possible environment for that reality."
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