Mankato’s university president is unequivocal in his response to a call by some college presidents to lower the legal drinking age to 18.
“I think it would cause more problems for us. I think a lot of people now choose not to drink because it’s against the law. We’d just have a lot more problems if more students were drinking,” said Richard Davenport, president of Minnesota State University.
Debate over lowering the drinking age nationwide flared this week after it was announced 104 college and university presidents signed the Amethyst Initiative, which urged a national debate on drinking at college.
Jack R. Ohle, president of Gustavus Adolphus College, signed the Amethyst Initiative saying he hopes it spurs serious debate about dangerous drinking habits.
“I signed the statement in hopes that it would encourage debate on our campus about the seriousness of drinking in general, but more importantly, the high-risk drinking that has become so common on college campuses today,” Ohle said in a statement.
Jerry Huettl, director of public safety in Mankato, called the idea of lowering the drinking age ridiculous.
“Do they remember what happened the last time the age was lowered? We drove the drinking problems farther down to the younger ages.
“This is the colleges saying that by making it legal we don’t have to worry about it, rather than dealing with the problems,” Huettl said.
“You can wipe out the illegality overnight, but not the problems.”
Davenport said he knows many of his students may disagree with his stand and he has some sympathy for their position.
“The best argument is that if they’re old enough to fight a war, they’re old enough to drink. I understand that. That’s a social justice issue,” Davenport said.
“My concern is they haven’t lived on their own and haven’t faced decisions that, after a couple of years in college, they can better deal with.”
Mary Dowd, director of student rights and responsibilities at MSU, said all the research shows alcohol use and academics make a poor mix. Grade-point averages go down as drinking goes up. Drop-outs increase with more drinking. Campus crime, poor sexual decisions and other problems all rise among college students as drinking increases, Dowd said.
“These are very young people. They are adults, but they’re very young adults,” Dowd said.
“I can’t imagine the added problems by having so many more students legally drinking.”
If the drinking age were lowered to 18, about 6,000 MSU students would become legally eligible to drink.
Gustavus’ Ohle said the initiative is not so much about getting the drinking age lowered as it is about getting a more serious debate going on college life and drinking habits.
“We need serious, sustained, unfettered debate about the drinking age and the reality of life on a college campus and how these two things are aligned,” Ohle said.
Still, he said all options should be kept open. “We must engage in civil, informed, and dispassionate debate and consider all policy alternatives no matter how controversial.”
The Amethyst Initiative says keeping the drinking age at 21 fosters a culture of “dangerous, clandestine binge-drinking” and pushes students to “make ethical compromises that erode respect for the law.”
Mothers Against Drunk Driving was quick to denounce the initiative as irresponsible and dangerous.
The name for the Amethyst Initiative (www.amethystinitiative.org) was inspired by Greek belief that the amethyst gem could counteract drunkenness.
Mankato has had a number of drinking-related tragedies in the past couple of years.
MSU student Peter Sand of Zumbrota was found dead last month in his cousin’s home near Hamline University in St. Paul after a group had been out drinking together.
Sand’s death is at least the fifth involving alcohol to strike young adults in Minnesota college towns since just last fall, including three in the Mankato/North Mankato.
In October, Amanda Jax, a former MSU student celebrating her 21st birthday, died after a night of heavy drinking at a Mankato bar. Jax had a blood-alcohol content of about 0.46 percent — nearly six times the legal limit for driving.
A month later, MSU students Rissa Amen-Reif, 22, of Eden Prairie, was killed and friend Corinne Overstake, 21, of Loretto, Minn., was seriously injured after drinking and being struck by a car on Third Avenue.
Tony Lee Miller, 22, a South Central College graduate, died in his North Mankato apartment from alcohol poisoning after drinking heavily in January.
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