Carleton Progressive

Carleton, Alcohol Abuse, and the Amethyst Initiative

Emily Thomas

Staff Writer

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Living in Montréal this summer, I asked a guy of about my age if he ever went down to New York and Vermont. He smiled, thought about it a little and said “No, they’re a little bit too…restrictive.” I nodded and focused on finishing my pint. The whole summer I was never carded, never denied a drink, and, strangely, I never got drunk. Scores of students who have studied abroad could tell the same story. So why does it seem that lower drinking ages promote more responsible alcohol use? Is it actually a result of the lower drinking ages, or does alcohol just hold less allure in less alco-phobic cultures? Is it simply a myth that lower drinking ages promote responsibility at all? This is the question a group of college presidents tried to answer last fall by launching the Amethyst Initiative, a petition calling for a discussion of the current drinking age. Carleton’s own Rob Oden is not currently a signatory, but the presidents of comparable schools such as Pomona , Middlebury, and Dickinson have all signed on. As Sharon Herzberger, president of Whittier College, explains, “I decided to sign not because I ‘know’ the right answer to this frightening challenge, but because I agree with the call to have a national conversation…I was too aware that the current approach to discouraging and monitoring student drinking did not work.” Although the national conversation seems to have been moved to the backburner for now, the Amethyst Initiative has already engaged colleges, universities, health experts, and advocacy groups across the nation, and become a major talking point for Carleton students.

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I expected an enthusiastic response to the initiative from Carleton students, and was surprised when even students under 21 who regularly consume alcohol seemed lukewarm about the idea of lowering the drinking age to 18. Their main concern? High school students receiving free access to alcohol during senior year, a time when most students are reliant on cars for transportation and, looking back on our own experiences, not particularly responsible. Ken Zillig, a freshman at Carleton, agreed. He avoided the drinking scene in high school, noting that “although they might not realize it until they get to college, high school students aren’t mature enough to drink.” For most of us at Carleton, hindsight is 20/20, but giving high school students even easier access to alcohol could be extremely dangerous. On the other hand, lowering the drinking age could, counterintuitively, decrease consumption of alcohol among high school students by depriving alcohol of its illicit mystique. Interviewees agreed that placing an emphasis on safety rather than punishment might be the most effective way to help binge drinkers in high school. Freshman Chris Densmore explains, “It’s important for parents to be realistic about their expectations, and it’s crucial for parents to emphasize that they need to be the first phone call when their children feel uncomfortable.” Much of the concern about high school drinkers centers around DUIs and car wreck deaths, but students suggested that this problem could be solved by better enforcement of laws against drinking and driving. While it’s true that, statistically, drunk driving deaths have increased among the 18-20 age group when the drinking age has been lowered, it is also possible that these deaths are now deferred rather than prevented. Mothers Against Drunk Driving strongly opposes the initiative, but students felt that by prioritizing education, safety, and tougher enforcement of DUI laws, many of these deaths would be prevented. All expressed strong opposition to drunk driving, and sophomore Milanda Landis noted that the greatest danger comes not from drivers who are completely drunk but from those who “may not know they’ve had just a little too much.” If the punishment for drunk driving were harsher, she said “people wouldn’t take the risk of driving with even a little alcohol in their systems.” In general, students felt that drinking was a personal choice that should be respected, and punished harshly only when it put others at risk.

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Carleton’s alcohol policy as a possible approach to underage drinking was generally seen as a good solution. “In general, I think colleges deal with it in an appropriate way” said Densmore. While Carleton’s policy prohibits the consumption of alcohol by underage students as required by state law, most Carleton students appreciate that Carleton emphasizes helping students who have problems with alcohol rather than simply punishing them. As Landis put it, “one great thing about Carleton is that you don’t have to be afraid to seek help for your friends.” A wealth of resources are available for students who consume too much alcohol, and most students agreed that if a friend had alcohol poisoning, their first priority would be to call 911 or campus security, not to worry about getting in trouble. On the other hand, campus security reported last week that during the 2008-2009 school year 11 arrests and 61 referrals for disciplinary action were made for liquor law violations, more than all the other referrals and arrests combined. It’s clear from these statistics that Carleton students are drinking to excess and are being punished for it, though the percentage of students involved in these incidents is remarkably low, about 0.2% for arrests and about 3% for disciplinary action. Most students are reluctant to give information about Carleton drinking culture, but anyone who’s been to a Sayles dance knows that a large portion of the student body consumes alcohol. Carleton’s alcohol policy seems reasonable, but at the same time it seems to do little to prevent drinking or promote responsible consumption among students. In one infamous 2003 incident, 8 students were hospitalized with alcohol poisoning in 8 days. Former Dean of Students Mark Govoni commented on this in the Carleton Voice in 2004: “This is not really new. It is a constant social problem at Carleton and has been for decades. [One] compelling finding is that we should not radically change our approach to student life and student drinking.” Like all campus alcohol policies, Carleton’s seems like a good compromise between excessive strictness and excessive permissiveness, but at times it can prove frighteningly impotent.

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The takeaway message from all this discussion may be as simple as the statement of freshman Tom McCary: “if you want to get alcohol, it’s easy to do so.” None of the students I spoke with, whether they consumed alcohol or not, said that the law was what prevented them from doing so. Densmore, like a good Carleton student, cited John Locke on this, saying, “the nature of the law is to protect people from harm, so if breaking the law doesn’t harm anyone other than me, the law is essentially useless.” Others who didn’t drink said they weren’t concerned about the law, but simply weren’t interested in drinking. Most alarmingly, those who did drink said that the law didn’t drive them to abstain, simply to conceal their drinking rather than do it socially. The simple truth is that the over-21 law, good or bad, isn’t doing what it’s supposed to, and in fact may have the opposite of its intended effect. Most students reported that they would have serious reservations about lowering the drinking age to 18, but they felt that 19 would be entirely appropriate. At this point, students have experienced and adjusted to college culture, and according to those I spoke with, would be mature enough to make their own decisions about alcohol. Other possible solutions, such as raising the driving age, requiring young people to acquire a “drinking license,” or imposing restrictions on drinkers under 21 while still allowing them to consume some alcohol were widely supported among students. What remains clear in all of this is that underage drinking isn’t going away, and there are no easy answers to the problem. For this reason, we hope that the Amethyst Initiative will bring about, if not solutions, honest discussions about the way American students think about and use alcohol today.

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References:

Carleton Campus Security Report 2008

http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/security/crimereports/

Amethyst Initiative: www.amethystinitiative.org

Carleton College Voice Fall 2004 https://apps.carleton.edu/voice/PDFStory.php?id=490&type=departments