College presidents seek drinking age debate

'...saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus."

Not to mention the fact the universities can make a TON more money selling beer to 18 year olds.

These college elitist administrators in their insular ivory ivy coated towers of academia lack the administrative skills to run their colleges responsibly. A zero tolerance for alcohol consumption by all students and a strict enforcement policy should help curtail some of this alcohol abuse. This reminds me of the late 60's and early 70's when they dropped the drinking age so they could justify the killing of our youth in Viet Nam. After the war was over they raised the age back up again. If you ask me, these administrators are exhibiting that same mentality. But, instead of death in the jungles of Asia, they are espousing death in the blackboard jungles of academia.

Good.

What about alchohol awareness classes? Would help them understand adults drinking also...

Did prohibition work?

They usually learn one way or another...

Is there responsible drinking?

Maybe adults can discuss their learning experiences with drinking....

Sadly in our country people "become" adults magically and in explicably when they turn 21 and THAT is the ONLY requirement for being classified as an adult is turning 21.

They aren't adults. They are young adults at that time. They won't be adults until they get out of college and are on their own for 5 or 10 years and pile up some real life experience apart from the shelter of parents or the shelter of college.

Turning 18 at home does not make one an adult and X amount of years of communal living on a college campus does not constitute being an adult either.

Current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus?

Lol. It's the campus that encourages drinking because drinking alcohol is a rite of passage in college. So much in fact it is almost like an unwritten rule of attendance.

I think the colleges just want the drinking age lowered to cover their ass for so many underage drunks that go to their schools and then end up alcoholics or in rehab or in Alcoholics Anonymous.

It isn't any secret that the popular opinion of college students that the easiest place to get alcohol is on campus of from someone they know on campus.

The colleges can wipe out all of the above by lobbying to lower the drinking age to 18.

Then all the above goes off the shoulders of the colleges and onto the students.

Colleges just do not want the responsibility of enforcement or the task of drug and alcohol education bearing any burden on their profits is all I think it is plus being able to avoid all the lawsuits that could be brought against them by the legal sector and the private for mass underage drinking on campus.

This could be remedied by a BAN on ALL alcohol on campus.

Also look at what reducing the drinking age would do to the rest of the state that exists outside the college campus?

The colleges think millions of state residents should be able to buy booze at age 18 just so a few hundred of them can guzzle it down on campus?

carey529 wrote:

'...saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus."
Not to mention the fact the universities can make a TON more money selling beer to 18 year olds.

There maybe in America but the only references I find to bars on campus is in the United Kingdom.

Frat houses are also another problem for free flowing alcohol because the inhabitants of the frat house are age 18 and up, some even younger at times.

In the city I lived in the frat houses were off campus and privately owned and rented to fraternity members in succession year after year.

The fraternities had established them selves in those two and three story houses for so long that the Greek symbols of the fraternity were permanently attached to the front of the house.

Without probable cause of underage drinking or complaints of underage drinking the campus police nor the city police can address the matter and as long as no one sees in and the doors or windows are shut nothing can be done.

Laws directed specifically at frat houses that ban alcohol in or on frat house property if the frat houses anyone under the legal age of drinking in that state would be a good start because it is in there where they get a huge amount of it.

why not start OUTSOURCING higher education. HERSHEY CANDY moved factory from york pa. to monterrey mex.. why not penn state? cut tuition cost by 2/3 and NO DRINKING AGE!

Here is a story dated 7/28/08:

New bar may curb drunken driving.

"On August 1, there will be a new option for students and it will be right on campus. A new bar will be opening up right across from the UCF Arena - the first on-campus bar in the country to attain a full liquor license."

http://media.www.centralfloridafuture.com/med...

Blackboard Jungle wrote:

These college elitist administrators in their insular ivory ivy coated towers of academia lack the administrative skills to run their colleges responsibly.

How do you figure this?

A zero tolerance for alcohol consumption by all students and a strict enforcement policy should help curtail some of this alcohol abuse.

Zero tolerance does not work. Zero tolerance means zero use of common sense. Wake up and smell the coffee, young adults will drink.

How about zero tolerance for stupid ideas?, in fact let's just execute those who espouse stupid ideas and we can thus get rid of the low IQ portion of the population and make the nation better in the process.

This reminds me of the late 60's and early 70's when they dropped the drinking age so they could justify the killing of our youth in Viet Nam.

What planet are you on (or were you on)? The drinking age wasn't dropped to justify killing anyone, the drinking age was dropped to 18 because that's what the voting age was lowered to and you can't really ask someone to be drafted and sent off to die for their country when they can't legally buy a beer. 18 year olds are adults in this country.

After the war was over they raised the age back up again.

No they did not. The drinking age was raised in the 80's by the "Just Say No" Reagan administration.

If you ask me, these administrators are exhibiting that same mentality.

Common sense is what type of mentality? Allowing adults to be adults is what type of mentality?

But, instead of death in the jungles of Asia, they are espousing death in the blackboard jungles of academia.

Nonsense, garbage logic is garbage logic no matter where you are.

In Real Time wrote:

Sadly in our country people "become" adults magically and in explicably when they turn 21 and THAT is the ONLY requirement for being classified as an adult is turning 21.

People are adults in this country when they turn 18 years old.

consider Europe where drinking ages are lower, and the family drinks in moderation around meals. Kids learn to drink in moderation and responsibly.

USA tries to regulate bad behavior.. doesn't work... 1% of our population is in prison.. many for smoking a joint .. how stupid

we need to teach kids how to behave, not just put laws and jail terms on behaviors we don't accept

I wonder if under 21 soldiers in Iraq can have a beer? The Army shovels out Prosac, Effexor, Testosterone, Ambien, etc.... I wonder if they are allowed to have a beer

The "under 21" crowd always managed to get alcohol on college campuses if they wanted it. Home brewing it was always an option too.

IMHO, dropping the drinking age to 18 on campus would be a good idea. Instead of making booze raids, campus police could be put on more productive duty catching drunk drivers and rowdy public drunks.

It's sad that an 18-year-old can die for his country but he can't enjoy a beer.

carey529 wrote:

'...saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus."
Not to mention the fact the universities can make a TON more money selling beer to 18 year olds.

I'm sure THAT'S the reason they want lower the legal drinking age. Around here it's people in their 30's and 40's getting their 6-10th DUI's.