College Presidents Seek to Lower Drinking Age

[SWTXBelle]

A former student of mine had an interesting idea - why doesn't MADD try and get the DRIVING age upped? It's easier to control driving than drinking . . .he said this firmly tongue in cheek, btw.

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

A former student of mine had an interesting idea - why doesn't MADD try and get the DRIVING age upped? It's easier to control driving than drinking . . .he said this firmly tongue in cheek, btw.

A lot of states are trying to do this with the graduated licensing laws - I know NC passed it right as I was 14 or 15 and was in the first cohort of teenage drivers affecting. It basically limited driving at night or driving friends around until you were 16.5 or 17. It also required that you be enrolled in high school to have a license.

There is waaaaaaaay too much opposition to raising the driving age though for that to ever be viable for MADD...

[dekeguy]

I know its been said many times before but this issue is sort of personal to me so please bear with me. It seems to me to be absurd that one can vote, enter into valid contracts, and serve in the Armed Forces at age 18 but one cannot drink until the age of 21. The outfit I commanded when I was forward deployed on active duty had a substantial percentage of under 21s serving with courage, honor, and professionalism. It seems to me that if one shoulders the responsibilities of citizenship then it naturally follows that with responsibilities come rights and priveleges. How do I tell a soldier I have just recommended for a combat decoration that he can't have a beer. How do I tell a soldier I have just rated highly in his EER annual appraisal for skill, dedication, maturity, and professionalism that he is not allowed to have a glass of wine with his steak. Well, actually, its part of my job to do so, but in following the law I don't have to like it or approve of it.
Are there risks attendant to lowering the drinking age? Of course there are, but who ever said that life was risk free? And speaking of risks, there are no draftees in today's Army, everyone is a volunteer. So if a soldier is willing to take the voluntary risk of laying his life on the line then this absurdity is unsupportable when one considers the principles upon which this Country was founded. I do not say that the drinking age should be lowered only for those who serve in the Armed Forces, but as all qualified men and women are eligible to serve, and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, at 18 then it seems that all men and women should be seen as intrinsically entitled. Not as a favor or privelege but as of right as fully participating citizens enfranchasized to vote, contract, and all other aspects of participating citizenship.

[Kevin]

You know.. for every year the age is pushed back, lives would probably be saved.

Why not just move it to 65?

[LΩVE]

I turned 18 just a couple of weeks after arriving at college. Though I wasn't supporting myself financially, I was taking care of myself in all other respects. I also, on that day, became qualified to choose who leads my country, fight and die for my country, and had I lived in any other normal state, buy cigarettes, sign my own contracts, and marry. I already had the right to drive.

So why can I not drink a beer?

I felt that way before I turned 21 and I still do.

I feel that the age for everything needs to be the same. I can say that drinking did lose a little of the sparkle it had before I became legal. I enjoy it and frequently have one with dinner (when I can afford it), but drinking like a freshman almost never happens now. If nothing else, my body can't handle it as well. Now instead of waking up ready to do it all over again I wake up feeling like someone threw me down a hill in a trash can full of rocks. And it's that way for most of my friends too.

I think the argument that liability issues could be reduced by lowering the drinking age is a damn good one. We're not all mature by 18 or 19, but I think choosing the president or sacrificing your life or getting married are all life changing and important decisions and if we're deemed mature enough to make those, we are mature enough to choose to drink or not.

[exlurker]

And at Indiana University of Pennsylvania apparently just rolling out of bed when intoxicated can be dangerous, although in this case the fall from a second-story window at Theta Chi didn't result in serious injuries. The young lady and her boyfriend are both reported as being 19:

http://online.indianagazette.com/ind...6331&Itemid=52

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by exlurker

And at Indiana University of Pennsylvania apparently just rolling out of bed when intoxicated can be dangerous, although in this case the fall from a second-story window at Theta Chi didn't result in serious injuries. The young lady and her boyfriend are both reported as being 19:

http://online.indianagazette.com/ind...6331&Itemid=52

This falling out of open second story windows always makes me wonder... Why do these windows not have screens???? Cuz seriously, you wouldn't have to be drunk to roll out of an open window while sound asleep if your bed is right next to an open window...

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by AGDee

This falling out of open second story windows always makes me wonder... Why do these windows not have screens???? Cuz seriously, you wouldn't have to be drunk to roll out of an open window while sound asleep if your bed is right next to an open window...

They made a huge deal out of this at W&L. Campus hearsay was that a similar incident (rolling out of your bed while drunk) had happened at W&L in the 80s or early 90s. Don't know if this was true.

When I was a dorm counselor I was required to inspect the girls' room set-ups to make sure that no had had their beds pushed against the window. Really. I was also supposed to do informal visual checks from time to time to ensure that that the screens were still in their windows.

People do take their window screens out for a variety of reasons, and IMO it is a good idea for colleges to require that people not do this. Of course I guess it's more of a problem at places that have dorms without A/C - if the dorms have A/C the windows probably aren't getting opened nearly as much.

[nittanyalum]

There's an editorial in tomorrow's Washington Post about this (they always have to slide in the slam on greek life, don't they? ): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...r=emailarticle

[ZetaGirl22]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

what he said

[agzg]

Well the article does include the debate.

But, they're saying that New Jersey, where the minimum for a license is 17, has a lower fatality rate among teens than Connecticut, where the minimum is 16 years and 4 months.

My assumption with New Jersey is that you do not need to be 17 in order to get a driving permit - so either way they'd (potentially) have a year of experience with driving at 17 anyway.

I got my permit the day I turned 16. I got my license a month after my 17th birthday. Just a random fact about myself thrown in there for good measure.