Amethyst Initiative: More Than 100 College Presidents Call for End to 21 Year Old Drinking Age

The 21 year old minimum drinking age is not working. It's had a 24 year run and has proven to be a failure. It is widely ignored and creates a sub-culture of hidden drinking. It's time for a change.

That's the essence of a call to action signed by more than 100 college chancellors and presidents. These are the folks that parents all over America are right at this moment trusting with their 17 and 18 year old freshmen students. They have seen the issues created by sudden freedom, the lack of parental guidance and accessibility to alcohol. These educators are suggesting it is time to try another approach.

Under the banner of the Amethyst Initiative the college presidents are taking the brave step of stating the facts. The 21 year old drinking age has created a culture of clandestine binge-drinking. They are backed by the Choose Responsibility a Vermont-based group that we have talked about before on this issue.

Amethyst Initiative signatories are taking the risky step of asking politicians to stop and think. In a world where 18 year olds can vote, march off to war and sign credit card contracts that put them in financial peril, they cannot legally drink. The result is that we are teaching millions of young adults that not all laws are really valid or worth following. Basically, any 20 year old who wants a beer knows several places where they can get a beer. And they break the law in doing so.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving has reacted by calling on its members to contact the schools that have joined the effort to protest the move. They are ignoring the facts and a study by the University of North Carolina in 2004 that found when young people had the chance to drink with their parents that they learned from the example and were less likely to abuse alcohol.

Making beer, wine and spirits the forbidden fruit did not work during Prohibition and it is not working now.

Here's a list of the college administrators that have come out in favor of reconsidering the 21 year old drinking age:

President Vincent Maniaci, American International College
President Jerry M. Greiner, Arcadia University
President Ronald Slepitza, Avila University
President Elizabeth Coleman, Bennington College
President Scott D. Miller, Bethany College
President Bobby Fong, Butler University
President David Wolk, Castleton State College
President Mark J. Tierno, Cazenovia College
President Carmen Twillie Ambar, Cedar Crest College
President Esther L. Barazzone, Chatham University
President John Bassett, Clark University
President Anthony G. Collins, Clarkson University
President James R. Phifer, Coe College
President Rebecca S. Chopp, Colgate University
President Robert Hoover, College of Idaho
President Mary Pat Seurkamp, College of Notre Dame of Maryland
President Frank Miglorie, College of St. Joseph
President Richard Celeste, Colorado College
President Dennison W. Griffith, Columbus College of Art & Design
President James E. Wright, Dartmouth College
President G. T. Smith, Davis & Elkins College
President William G. Durden, Dickinson College
President Robert Weisbuch, Drew University
President Richard Brodhead, Duke University
President Joseph R. Fink, Dominican University of California
President Donald R. Eastman III, Eckerd College
President Theodore Long, Elizabethtown College
President Thomas Meier, Elmira College
President Richard E. Wylie, Endicott College
President Jeffrey von Arx, Fairfield University
President Janet Morgan Riggs, Gettysburg College
President Sanford J. Ungar, Goucher College
President Jack Ohle, Gustavus Adolphus College
President Joan Hinde Stewart, Hamilton College
President Walter M. Bortz, Hampden-Sydney College
President Ralph J. Hexter, Hampshire College
President Susan DeWine, Hanover College
President Nancy O. Gray, Hollins University
President Richard B. Gilman, CSC, Holy Cross College (IN)
President Barbara Murphy, Johnson State College
President John J. Bowen, Johnson & Wales University
President William Brody, Johns Hopkins University
President Leon Richards, Kapiolani Community College
President S. Georgia Nugent, Kenyon College
President Daniel H. Weiss, Lafayette College
President Stephen D. Schutt, Lake Forest College
President Thomas J. Hochstettler, Lewis & Clark College
Carol A. Moore, Lyndon State College
President Leonard Tyler, Maine Maritime Academy
President Thomas J. Scanlan, F.S.C., Manhattan College
President Richard Berman, Manhattanville College
President Tim Foster, Mesa State College
President Ronald Liebowitz, Middlebury College
President Frances Lucas, Millsaps College
President Mary Ellen Jukoski, Mitchell College
President Christopher Thomforde, Moravian College
President Robert Michael Franklin Jr., Morehouse College
President Joanne V. Creighton, Mount Holyoke College
President Peyton R. Helm, Muhlenberg College
President Randy Dunn, Murray State University
President Thomas B. Coburn, Naropa University
President Fran Voigt, New England Culinary Institute
President Debra Townsley, Nichols College
President Robert A. Skotheim, Occidental College
President Lawrence Schall, Oglethorpe University
President E. Gordon Gee, Ohio State University
President Phil Creighton, Pacific University
President Loren J. Anderson, Pacific Lutheran University
President John Mills, Paul Smith’s College
President David W. Oxtoby, Pomona College
President Robert A. Gervasi, Quincy University
President Robert R. Lindgren, Randolph-Macon College
President William E. Troutt, Rhodes College
President David C. Joyce, Ripon College
President Gregory G. Dell'Omo, Robert Morris University
President Charles R. Middleton, Roosevelt University
President Pamela Trotman Reid, Saint Joseph College (CT)
President Timothy R. Lannon, Saint Joseph’s University (PA)
President Arthur F. Kirk, Saint Leo University
President Patricia Maguire Meservey, Salem State College
President JoAnne Boyle, Seton Hill University
Vice Chancellor Joel L. Cunningham, Sewanee: University of the South
President Carol T. Christ, Smith College
President Paul LeBlanc, Southern New Hampshire University
President Beverly Daniel Tatum, Spelman College
President Robert E. Ritschel, Spoon River College
President Daniel F. Sullivan, St. Lawrence University
President Harold J. Raveche, Stevens Institute of Technology
President Elisabeth S. Muhlenfeld, Sweet Briar College
Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Syracuse University
President J. Patrick O’Brien, Texas A & M University-West Texas
President Robert Caret, Towson University
President James F. Jones, Jr., Trinity College
President John M. Stamm, Trinity Lutheran College
President Lawrence S. Bacow, Tufts University
President Walter Harrison, University of Hartford
President Louis Agnese Jr., University of the Incarnate Word
President Jennifer Hunter-Cevera, University of Maryland--Biotechnology Institute
President C.D. Mote Jr., University of Maryland--College Park
President Jack M. Wilson, University of Massachusetts System
Chancellor William E. Kirwan, University System of Maryland
President Steven H. Kaplan, University of New Haven
President Geoffrey Shields, Vermont Law School
Chancellor Robert Clarke, Vermont State Colleges
President Ty Handy, Vermont Technical College
President Tori Haring-Smith, Washington and Jefferson College
President Kenneth P. Ruscio, Washington and Lee University
President L. Baird Tipson, Washington College
President Michael Bassis, Westminster College (UT)
President Sharon D. Herzberger, Whittier College
President James T. Harris, Widener University
President M. Lee Pelton, Willamette University
President Lorna Duphiney Edmundson, Wilson College