The chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse could sign an initiative encouraging Congress and universities across the nation to revisit the current legal drinking age if faculty, staff and students also approve the measure.
The Amethyst Initiative urges Congress to review the National Minimum Drinking Age Act to solve the underage-drinking problem because the 21-year-old drinking age has not stopped irresponsible binge drinking.
The National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which requires states to enforce 21 years as the minimum age for purchasing and publicly possessing alcohol, was passed in 1984 and is up for reauthorization by Congress in 2009.
Currently, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside is the only UW school to have signed the initiative, however, students at UW-La Crosse are pushing for their chancellor’s name to be added to the list.
According to UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow, a petition is being circulated around campus to encourage the UW-La Crosse Student Senate to approve a resolution asking him to sign the initiative.
Gow said the petition would have to be approved by the Student Senate, the Faculty Senate and the Academic Staff Council before he signs his name.
“The challenge when you sign that document is that it would be on behalf of the whole university,” Gow said. “I need to be sure that I know what the people here at the university want to do.”
Gow said he has heard valid opinions from both sides of the drinking age issue, which is why he believes it is such a complex topic.
“The law that we have is not preventing younger people from drinking too much,” Gow said. “But I’ve also heard from family members of people who died in accidents caused from underage drinking who say that lowering the age is not a good idea.”
According to Gow, the Student Senate will be voting on the resolution Oct. 29, and the outcome of that vote will decide whether the resolution will be passed along to the other governance groups on campus.
John Lucas, spokesperson for UW-Madison, said Chancellor Biddy Martin has no current plan to sign the initiative, however, she is leaving open the possibility of signing it in the future.
“The one thing we’re really skeptical about is revisiting the 18-year drinking age,” Lucas said. “We’re much more concerned about the effects of heavy drinking and not so much the underage drinking issue.”
Aaron Brower, principal investigator for the Policy Alternatives Community and Education program at UW, said he thinks raising a discussion about the drinking age is a “good thing,” although he said there is no evidence that changing the drinking age would decrease problems associated with binge drinking.
According to Brower, PACE has recommended that Chancellor Martin not sign the initiative because they believe signing would not solve any problems.
“If you go out and drink a lot, and then go home and go to sleep, that’s not the type of behavior we’re worried about,” Brower said. “The basic approach that we take is focusing on the problems associated with drinking rather than drinking itself.”
