Since 1984, when the National Minimum Drinking Age Act became public law, college presidents and administrators have dealt with the negative consequences of underage drinking. This problem has manifested itself on the vast majority of college campuses, including Loyola University Chicago.
In order to alleviate the problem of binge drinking on college campuses, some college presidents are pushing for open debate on the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. This is also the basic assertion of a group called Choose Responsibility. Choose Responsibility was founded in 2007 to lower the national minimum drinking age and to find ways to responsibly educate college students on the effects of alcohol consumption.
Choose Responsibility's goal is to introduce a comprehensive plan where 18-to-20-year-old high school graduates will have alcohol education, certification and a drinking permit before they are allowed to drink. However, Choose Responsibility faces stiff resistance from state legislatures because they do not want to lose 10 percent of federal grant money for the construction and maintenance of highways. Under the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, a state will automatically lose 10 percent if it legalizes a minimum drinking age under 21.
John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College and founder of Choose Responsibility, attacked the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in a 2004 New York Times op-ed as a "bad social policy and terrible law." McCardell pointed out negative social ramifications from the continued application of this particular law. "It is astonishing that college students have thus far acquiesced in so egregious an abridgment of the age of majority. Unfortunately, this acquiescence has taken the form of binge drinking. Campuses have become, depending on the enthusiasm of local law enforcement, either arms of the law or havens from the law."
McCardell is not alone in his views. To date, 129 college and university presidents across the country have signed the Amethyst Initiative. The Amethyst Initiative calls on elected officials to review current trends in alcohol consumption by minors (particularly binge drinking) and to reconsider current public policy related to drinking age.
The Rev. Michael J. Garanzini, S.J., has declined the invitation to sign on to the initiative.
He was unavailable for comment, but a spokesperson for Garanzini said that, "[Garanzini] feels that the initiative does not address the root causes of alcohol abuse by [young adults]; it seeks, by lowering the drinking age, to relieve colleges of most alcohol control responsibilities while not addressing the larger societal problem of excessive alcohol consumption."
The Amethyst Initiative has gained popular support with smaller universities and colleges, while larger public universities are virtually absent from the list. Three Jesuit universities are among the 129 colleges on the list: Fairfield University, Santa Clara University and Saint Joseph University.
In 2009, lawmakers will consider The National Minimum Drinking Age Act and decide whether or not to extend it.
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