A “Dispassionate” Debate
Early this week, we heard a lot in the news about college presidents who had signed a petition advocating re-thinking the drinking age: specifically, considering the costs and benefits of lowering it to 18 again. Some signers argue that raising the drinking age to 21 has caused more problems than it solved, by encouraging an underground drinking culture, the use of fake IDs and “preloading,” i.e.: drinking heavily in seclusion before a night out on the town.
The New York Times writes today that two presidents, Kendall Blanchard of Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, GA and Robert M. Franklin of Morehouse College in Atlanta, recinded their signatures. Blanchard told the NYT he felt critics misunderstood the petition’s intended purpose, to start a dialogue, and instead thought it is “some kind of effort on our part to turn our schools into party schools.”
Yup, because college and university presidents love for their institutions to be known as “Ibiza, But With Football”.
However, 15 more presidents have signed on, resulting in 123 signatories, some from household names such as Dartmouth, Duke, Tufts and Ohio State. Of course, the petition has its detractors, namely the Governors’ Highway Safety Administration and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
What do you think about the proposed “dispassionate public debate”?
