Was the 18 YO Drinking Age the Most Damaging?
 

So, I got off the phone with a university president, who is a Phi Psi, a half hour ago. We were discussing chapter cultures that promote true excellence.

It was his opinion that when the drinking age was lowered to 18, the behavior and standards of fraternities was also lowered. It was not until years after the drinking age was back up to 21, did things begin to get better.

He also specifically cited alumni, from the 1970s and 1980s, as those who continue to not be very helpful, in reforming fraternities.

Thoughts?

Our Canadian chapters have very little to no issue with risk management. I attribute this to the drinking age in Canada being 19.

There also aren't that many Canadian chapters to really make a statement like that.

-Rudey

I don't know. In Europe, the drinking age is 18 (or sometimes, even 16), and they have fewer issues than in English speaking countries. If kids are told that moderate drinking is ok, and are taught properly, then there'll be fewer issues.

Do you have proof of this?

-Rudey

There are 2 provinces in Canada where the legal drinking age is 18. Alberta and Quebec. I know Pi Phi has a chapter in Alberta, and there are GLO's in quebec. I have not heard of them having serious risk management issues because of the legal drinking age.

Do those chapters allow drinking in the house?

A friend of mine worked in Europe over the summer and she said that the young people over there weren't nearly as crazy about alcohol as they are here.

Pi Beta Phi has an alcohol-free housing policy.

I lived in Europe and they're crazier. Now that we're doing talking about our experience, let's talk statistics.


"Based on statistics compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA), "alcohol-related"(1) traffic fatalities for people under 21 dropped by 43% (from 5,062 alcohol-related fatalities to 2,883) during the years 1987 through 1996.(2) This should be seen in the context of a 28% drop in alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the general population. From 1982 through 1986 when minimum purchasing and public possession age laws varied from 18 to 21, alcohol-related traffic fatalities for people under 21 dropped by 14% (from 6,329 alcohol-related fatalities to 5,455).(3) Alcohol-related traffic fatalities for the general population during this period dropped by 4%. In NHSTA's view, the minimum 21 age laws "have had greater impact over the years as the drinking ages in the states have increased, affecting more drivers aged 18 to 20."(4)"

Also, in regards to Europe where the drinking age is lower, the WHO (World Health Organization) conducted a study stating:

"Britain, with few abstainers even in its adult population, is notable for the low numbers of adolescents who have never tried a drink. Well under 10% of 13-year-olds say they have never had alcohol. In addition, one in seven English boys aged 11, one in four Welsh boys of 13 and around a half of 15-year-old boys in England and Wales drink wine, spirit or beer once a week, putting them among the highest youthful consumers in Europe.

Cees Goos, WHO regional adviser for alcohol, drugs and tobacco, said: "We are receiving signals from all across the region that many young people are turning to alcohol as a drug. There is an increase in high-risk drinking, such as binge-drinking and drunkenness."

Europe under the influence

Belgium
6% of workers have drink problem; 40% of violent crime and vandalism linked to alcohol

Denmark
Drink-related deaths doubled 1970 -94 despite national consumption stagnating since 1983

Finland
Nearly half male and one in five female suicides involve alcohol abusers

France
40% of fatal traffic accidents - 4,000 deaths a year - and overall 43,000 deaths, 9% of total, linked to drink in 1997

Germany
2.7m people between 19 and 69 misuse alcohol. Alcohol-related mortality estimated at 40,000 a year

Hungary
Cirrhosis among men rose from 19 per 100,000 in 1970 to 208.8 in 1994

Norway
80% of crimes of violence, 60% of rapes, arson and vandalism committed under influence

Poland
1,446 fatal alcohol poisonings in 1996

Russia
40% of men and 17% of women suffer from alcoholism

Spain
25% of domestic violence drink-related

Sweden
87% of attempted suicides attributed to alcohol in 1992

United Kingdom
50% of violent crime, 65% of attempted suicides linked to alcohol; 33,000 deaths a year linked to drink in England and Wales alone


So these countries with lower drinking age minimums faced a lot of problems. America which increased its drinking age minimum, benefited it seems in the sense of less accidents.

-Rudey

The drinking age being lowered was tied up with so many other things - Vietnam, the sexual revolution, student protests, increased drug use - that to say that everything was due to the drinking age is ridiculous.

I think that by the time this actually occurred, there was so much drug usage that it was sort of a non-event. Alcohol was for parents and The Establishment.

Obviously I'm not talking about Greeks specifically, but the culture in general. Now that the drinking age is back up to 21 and alcohol is Satan, I think that drug use is MUCH worse than it used to be when I was in school. If you're going to break the law, might as well do it up big time.

And as for his alumni comment...I think that the 70's and 80's probably saw a more diverse (I mean class-wise) group of people joining GLOs than in years previous, so if he means they are not very helpful in wanting groups to be upscale Stepfordian enclaves, I guess he's right. :rolleyes:

He attributed Vietnam to producing more mature fraternity members.

As far as the 1970s and 1980s, he specifically said that these alumni now have expectations that college is a time to party, and many of these parents are tolerant of this kind of behavior (and by party, I mean all the time.)

Neither he, nor I in my post, mentioned anything about diversity. This thread is specifically about the disintegration of fraternal culture, and how the 18YO drinking age may have been the primary variable. What's with the comment of "wanting groups to be upscale Stepfordian enclaves?" Sheila, I would love to know what's going on inside your head.

Well, I thought that Vietnam produced dead fraternity members, but I guess that's just me.

Re the "diverse" comment, I didn't quite know how to put what I meant...I knew it would come out wrong. (This is another thing that has nothing to do with drinking age) A lot of new student aid came about in the 1970's and 1980's....college (and Greek life) was no longer only for the rich. Greek life also expanded at a lot of smaller schools. So you're going to get a much wider variety of types of people joining, which I think is great. It seems nowadays that the pendulum is swinging back and all the risk-management preventatives (third party vendors, party buses etc) are once again making Greek life something you have to be wealthy to be part of. I'm not saying the preventatives are inherently bad, but when you have to do all that it takes a toll on your finances that chapters cannot always handle without jacking their dues into the stratosphere.

The result is that you have a smaller pool of people joining Greek life and more risk of homogenization. So I didn't mean race-religion-sexuality diverse, I meant it in a $$ way.

Maybe there are some parents who think college time = party time, but I'm guessing that there are far more out there like the parents at South Carolina who had fits that their little darlings might be wasting a millisecond of study time pledging.

But to answer the question, NO, the 18YO age was not the primary variable. There were far too many other things going on at that time. (Including one I missed - coeducation at formerly all-male schools)

Alcohol can be very dangerous, especially in a culture where we drive to get everywhere. However, I would like to see the drinking age lowered to 19 or 20, to release pressure on Univeristies, yet still keep High School students from getting their hands on the stuff. of course, I would love an increase in safe public transportation at night to go along with this.
My reasons have nothing to do with stats, and everything to do with the fact that I have young friends who still can't go to bars with me. Actually, I would love to see local authorities cooperate to have 19 and over bars, but 21 to drink. Even that would be much nicer!! I can have a blast, and my young friends can come out and DD. (evil laugh)

As for the kids in Europe being more mature about alcohol, some are at 18 compared to US kids, but that's because they went all out at 14! I swear I saw groups of 12 year olds in the plazas guzziling calimocho. 12!!!! No one bothered to stop them.

I'm going to be the type of Mom who hosts the New Year's party for my kids their senior year in high school because I'd rather see them drink champagne in my living room and not get caught then be out doing it wherever.

Hmmm. I'm not so sure I agree with that. I think the whole reason why the 70s and 80s seemed so out of control was the scrapping of in loco parentis as the norm. All evidence I've seen indicates that the 1980s were the worst (as far as alcohol is concerned), yet by the time I entered college in 1987, the 21 year old law was in place just about everywhere (I know they still had the grandfather clause in Ohio for like another year after that).