Seven years after most states increased the legal drinking age to 21, college officials are still wrestling with how to respond. Some are trying to stamp out underage drinking on their campuses, while others say a more realistic approach is to acknowledge that students use alcohol and to encourage them not to abuse it.
Some administrators argue that telling underage students to drink “responsibly” encourages them to flout the law. Those administrators believe universities should strictly prohibit alcohol consumption by such students. Others say the vast majority of students would drink anyway. While they agree that universities should not encourage students to break the law, they believe institutions have a pressing obligation to persuade students to stop short of abuse.
Regardless of which side they’re on, almost all administrators agree that state laws raising the drinking age to 21 have made it difficult to set campuswide policies, since some undergraduates can drink legally and others cannot.
While, some administrators say they see signs that the law has prompted some students to wait longer to begin drinking, educators say alcohol remains the most widely used drug among college students. Violent incidents related to its abuse -- ranging from date rape to death -- continue to plague many campuses.
“Alcohol is still the No. 1 source of discipline problems and other emotional or physical problems on campus,” says Robert F. Ariosto, dean of student affairs at Central Connecticut State University. “That’s a fact that doesn’t go away.”
Some students say that raising the drinking age has not reduced drinking problems among young people. Instead, they say, it has encouraged underage students both to go off campus to drink and to use alcohol in larger amounts when they do get hold of it. Students on several campuses of the University of Wisconsin have organized campaigns to push state legislators to lower the drinking age, and students at other institutions are considering similar drives.
Dennis O’Brien, president of the University of Rochester, is among those who favor teaching students to drink responsibly, regardless of their age. Mr. O’Brien says that does not mean he ignores the law -- indeed, he tells underage students they risk arrest if they are caught drinking alcoholic beverages. But because most of Rochester’s students drink anyway, Mr. O’Brien and other officials encourage students to stop before they get drunk.
At Rochester, counselors meet with students in dormitories several times a year to tell them about the problems that can result from alcohol abuse -- including poor academic performance and violence.
Mr. O’Brien says that preaching abstinence is ineffective. Alcohol education, he believes, should be similar to the sex education that many campus health centers offer.
“I hope we’re not condoning inappropriate sexuality,” he says. “But the fact is, [students] do engage in it and ought to know what the risks are and how to behave so they don’t get AIDS.”
Ross J. Rapaport, coordinator of the alcohol and drug-abuse intervention and prevention program at Central Michigan University, says administrators should tell students what the law says and explain to them the consequences of breaking it. But he adds: “We can’t put our heads in the sand.”
Mr. Rapaport estimates that between 80 and 90 per cent of the students at Central Michigan drink, despite the university’s strict policies to combat alcohol use by underage students. “It’s irresponsible not to deal with that reality from a health-education standpoint,” he says. “But you walk a tightrope.”
Cleve B. Shultz, vice-president of the student association at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, credits education programs aimed at preventing alcohol abuse -- not drinking laws -- with the improvements he has seen in the way students handle alcohol. He says the designated-driver programs that some colleges have started have reduced alcohol-related accidents.
“In the past four years I’ve seen a total change in students’ attitudes about drinking and driving,” he says. “It’s taboo.”
Some college administrators believe that campaigns against drinking by underage students should be given a top priority.
Jennifer Berkman, director of Salisbury State University’s alcohol and drug prevention resource center, tells underage students why it’s dangerous to drink too much. But she also says colleges should emphasize that drug use and underage drinking are illegal. Doing so, she says, helps students understand that they must abide by laws -- whether or not they agree with them.
“I tell seniors that when they graduate next year, they won’t be able to take drugs because there will be drug testing,” she says. “We’re making connections between the rules on campus and those in the real world.”
Joseph W. Dorton, chief of enforcement for the South Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, agrees with Ms. Berkman. “If universities and colleges want to teach responsibility, there might be something to be said for teaching observation of the law -- simply because it is the law,” he says. Mr. Dorton is investigating the death of an underage Clemson University student who was drunk when she fell from the third floor of a fraternity.
Regardless of which side of the debate they take, almost all college administrators agree that the rise in the legal drinking age has put them in a no-win situation. It creates an unnatural split in the student population that makes setting and enforcing campuswide alcohol policies nearly impossible, they say.
“It’s awfully hard to control a mixed-age group where some can drink and some can’t, but all are students,” says Robin S. Wilson, president of California State University at Chico.
Adds Rochester’s Mr. O’Brien: “Since the consumption of alcohol is not in general an illegal activity -- unlike marijuana or crack -- you have this bizarre situation where at the mystic age of 21, suddenly people can drink legally when they couldn’t the day before.”
Others say that because Americans often treat the consumption of alcohol as a rite of passage and because advertisements give drinking a glamorous aura, colleges have a tough time enforcing any policy -- whether they are pushing for abstinence or for responsible drinking.
Proponents of the rise in the drinking age acknowledge that the laws have created some problems on campuses. But they say the change has prompted administrators to make students more aware of the dangers of alcohol abuse. And they believe that over the long term the laws will curb drinking among young people. A survey at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities found that after the drinking age went up, fewer 18- and 19-year-old students reported that they drank alcoholic beverages.
“I think our expectations might be too high,” says South Carolina’s Mr. Dorton, who predicts that problems will diminish the longer the laws are in effect. “I think raising the drinking age was intended to show long-term effects, and we’re seeing some of the psychology involved in the law being borne out: Kids are waiting longer to start drinking.”