Panel discusses Amethyst Initiative, begins drinking age debate
Ryan Stillion
Issue date: 3/26/09 Section: News
Campus proponents of lowering the drinking age to 18 won their second battle after last Wednesday's Amethyst initiative panel discussion.
Student Government initiated the town-hall style panel discussion after passing a resolution urging President Bowman to join the more than 100 other college presidents to sign the Amethyst Initiative.
After watching a video on the initiative, the panel, comprised of faculty members, community experts, and concerned students fielded questions and argumentative points from students in attendance. Bill Kennedy, Ph.D., served somewhat as a moderator for the event.
"What they're trying to do is get college presidents ... to say that there's a need for discussion," Kennedy said. "It does, however, state clearly that the current policy is not working."
The discussion started bluntly as one young man stated, "We should abolish the drinking age entirely," claiming that 21 is an arbitrary age, and a restriction of individual liberty. The student later conceded that "deaths would probably go up for a little while" before drinking became a more normalized facet of American culture and reduced binge drinking.
Dr. Joseph Franz, who operates Sports Safe Testing Services, the organization that drug tests Capital's athletes, consistently supported the current drinking age. "As soon as [the government] put the age up, deaths went down," he said, referring to the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 which required states to increase the drinking age to 21 or else lose highway funding.
Executive Director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Ohio Doug Scoles supported Franz. "25,000 people have been saved since they instituted the law," Scoles said. Paternalism and individual liberty served as a recurrent point of contention, sometimes making the discussion feel more like a debate.
"Saying 'the drinking age is 21' is like saying that I can't make decisions for myself until my senior year of college," an 18-year-old girl in the crowd said.
Student Government initiated the town-hall style panel discussion after passing a resolution urging President Bowman to join the more than 100 other college presidents to sign the Amethyst Initiative.
After watching a video on the initiative, the panel, comprised of faculty members, community experts, and concerned students fielded questions and argumentative points from students in attendance. Bill Kennedy, Ph.D., served somewhat as a moderator for the event.
"What they're trying to do is get college presidents ... to say that there's a need for discussion," Kennedy said. "It does, however, state clearly that the current policy is not working."
The discussion started bluntly as one young man stated, "We should abolish the drinking age entirely," claiming that 21 is an arbitrary age, and a restriction of individual liberty. The student later conceded that "deaths would probably go up for a little while" before drinking became a more normalized facet of American culture and reduced binge drinking.
Dr. Joseph Franz, who operates Sports Safe Testing Services, the organization that drug tests Capital's athletes, consistently supported the current drinking age. "As soon as [the government] put the age up, deaths went down," he said, referring to the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 which required states to increase the drinking age to 21 or else lose highway funding.
Executive Director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Ohio Doug Scoles supported Franz. "25,000 people have been saved since they instituted the law," Scoles said. Paternalism and individual liberty served as a recurrent point of contention, sometimes making the discussion feel more like a debate.
"Saying 'the drinking age is 21' is like saying that I can't make decisions for myself until my senior year of college," an 18-year-old girl in the crowd said.
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