<p>[My</a> Way News - College presidents seek debate on drinking age](<a href=“http://apnews.myway.com//article/20080818/D92KSIBO0.html]My”>HeadlineAlley)</p>
<p>“College Presidents speak out in favor of increased teen drunk driving”</p>
<p>let the spin begin…</p>
<p>If they can have clubs or frats on campus legally serving drinks they won’t need to drive.</p>
<p>Here’s the list of college Presidents campaigning for increased teen drunk driving:</p>
<p>[Amethyst</a> Initiative » Amethyst Initiative](<a href=“http://www.amethystinitiative.org/signatories/]Amethyst”>http://www.amethystinitiative.org/signatories/)</p>
<p>
President Vincent Maniaci, American International College</p>
<p>President Jerry M. Greiner, Arcadia University</p>
<p>President Ronald Slepitza, Avila University</p>
<p>President Elizabeth Coleman, Bennington College</p>
<p>President Scott D. Miller, Bethany College</p>
<p>President Bobby Fong, Butler University</p>
<p>President David Wolk, Castleton State College</p>
<p>President Mark J. Tierno, Cazenovia College</p>
<p>President Carmen Twillie Ambar, Cedar Crest College</p>
<p>President Esther L. Barazzone, Chatham University</p>
<p>President John Bassett, Clark University</p>
<p>President Anthony G. Collins, Clarkson University</p>
<p>President James R. Phifer, Coe College</p>
<p>President Rebecca S. Chopp, Colgate University</p>
<p>President Robert Hoover, College of Idaho</p>
<p>President Mary Pat Seurkamp, College of Notre Dame of Maryland</p>
<p>President Frank Miglorie, College of St. Joseph</p>
<p>President Richard Celeste, Colorado College</p>
<p>President Dennison W. Griffith, Columbus College of Art & Design</p>
<p>President James E. Wright, Dartmouth College</p>
<p>President G. T. Smith, Davis & Elkins College</p>
<p>President William G. Durden, Dickinson College</p>
<p>President Robert Weisbuch, Drew University</p>
<p>President Richard Brodhead, Duke University</p>
<p>President Donald R. Eastman III, Eckerd College</p>
<p>President Theodore Long, Elizabethtown College</p>
<p>President Thomas Meier, Elmira College</p>
<p>President Richard E. Wylie, Endicott College</p>
<p>President Jeffrey von Arx, Fairfield University</p>
<p>President Kendall A. Blanchard, Georgia Southwestern State University</p>
<p>President Janet Morgan Riggs, Gettysburg College</p>
<p>President Sanford J. Ungar, Goucher College</p>
<p>President Jack Ohle, Gustavus Adolphus College</p>
<p>President Joan Hinde Stewart, Hamilton College</p>
<p>President Walter M. Bortz, Hampden-Sydney College</p>
<p>President Ralph J. Hexter, Hampshire College</p>
<p>President Susan DeWine, Hanover College</p>
<p>President Nancy O. Gray, Hollins University</p>
<p>President Barbara Murphy, Johnson State College</p>
<p>President John J. Bowen, Johnson & Wales University</p>
<p>President S. Georgia Nugent, Kenyon College</p>
<p>President Daniel H. Weiss, Lafayette College</p>
<p>President Stephen D. Schutt, Lake Forest College</p>
<p>President Thomas J. Hochstettler, Lewis & Clark College</p>
<p>Carol A. Moore, Lyndon State College</p>
<p>President Leonard Tyler, Maine Maritime Academy</p>
<p>President Thomas J. Scanlan, F.S.C., Manhattan College</p>
<p>President Richard Berman, Manhattanville College</p>
<p>President Tim Foster, Mesa State College</p>
<p>President Ronald Liebowitz, Middlebury College</p>
<p>President Frances Lucas, Millsaps College</p>
<p>President Mary Ellen Jukoski, Mitchell College</p>
<p>President Christopher Thomforde, Moravian College</p>
<p>President Robert Michael Franklin Jr., Morehouse College</p>
<p>President Joanne V. Creighton, Mount Holyoke College</p>
<p>President Peyton R. Helm, Muhlenberg College</p>
<p>President Randy Dunn, Murray State University</p>
<p>President Thomas B. Coburn, Naropa University</p>
<p>President Fran Voigt, New England Culinary Institute</p>
<p>President Debra Townsley, Nichols College</p>
<p>President Robert A. Skotheim, Occidental College</p>
<p>President Lawrence Schall, Oglethorpe University</p>
<p>President E. Gordon Gee, Ohio State University</p>
<p>President Phil Creighton, Pacific University</p>
<p>President Loren J. Anderson, Pacific Lutheran University</p>
<p>President John Mills, Paul Smith’s College</p>
<p>President David W. Oxtoby, Pomona College</p>
<p>President Robert A. Gervasi, Quincy University</p>
<p>President Robert R. Lindgren, Randolph-Macon College</p>
<p>President William E. Troutt, Rhodes College</p>
<p>President David C. Joyce, Ripon College</p>
<p>President Gregory G. Dell'Omo, Robert Morris University</p>
<p>President Pamela Trotman Reid, Saint Joseph College (CT)</p>
<p>President Timothy R. Lannon, Saint Joseph’s University (PA)</p>
<p>President Arthur F. Kirk, Saint Leo University</p>
<p>Vice Chancellor Joel L. Cunningham, Sewanee: University of the South</p>
<p>President Carol T. Christ, Smith College</p>
<p>President Paul LeBlanc, Southern New Hampshire University</p>
<p>President Beverly Daniel Tatum, Spelman College</p>
<p>President Daniel F. Sullivan, St. Lawrence University</p>
<p>President Elisabeth S. Muhlenfeld, Sweet Briar College</p>
<p>Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Syracuse University</p>
<p>President J. Patrick O’Brien, Texas A & M University-West Texas</p>
<p>President Robert Caret, Towson University</p>
<p>President James F. Jones, Jr., Trinity College</p>
<p>President John M. Stamm, Trinity Lutheran College</p>
<p>President Lawrence S. Bacow, Tufts University</p>
<p>President Walter Harrison, University of Hartford</p>
<p>President Louis Agnese Jr., University of the Incarnate Word</p>
<p>President Jennifer Hunter-Cevera, University of Maryland-Biotechnology Institute</p>
<p>President C.D. Mote Jr., University of Maryland--College Park</p>
<p>Chancellor William E. Kirwan, University System of Maryland</p>
<p>President Steven H. Kaplan, University of New Haven</p>
<p>President Geoffrey Shields, Vermont Law School</p>
<p>Chancellor Robert Clarke, Vermont State Colleges</p>
<p>President Ty Handy, Vermont Technical College</p>
<p>President Tori Haring-Smith, Washington and Jefferson College</p>
<p>President Kenneth P. Ruscio, Washington and Lee University</p>
<p>President L. Baird Tipson, Washington College</p>
<p>President Michael Bassis, Westminster College (UT)</p>
<p>President Sharon D. Herzberger, Whittier College</p>
<p>President James T. Harris, Widener University</p>
<p>President M. Lee Pelton, Willamette University
</p>
<p>If they want to operate their multi-million dollar country clubs as giant speakeasies, let 'em - they already do it.</p>
<p>(If they were really concerned about binge drinking on their campuses, all they’d have to do is instruct the admissions offices about their concerns.)</p>
<p>I can appreciate anyone who is against this initiative to lower the legal drinking age. However, the title of the thread is misleading as the college presidents did not speak out in favor of increased teen drunk driving. You are free to interpret that a lower drinking age could result in more drunk driving arrests if you believe that, but to put words into the mouths of the college presidents and state what you said them to state as FACT is very misleading.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Are you suggesting that a lowering of the legal drinking age to 18 will not result in a return to much higher rates of teenage drunk driving?</p>
<p>What’s next? College Presidents calling for the elimination of sexual assault and rape laws because they can’t get a handle on that campus problem either?</p>
<p>RE Post #7:
I am not suggesting one way or the other. You are free to debate and believe that it WILL increase teenage drunk driving. That is open to debate. I have no stand on that issue. My point is that you put words in the mouths of this group of college presidents and they did not state that they were in favor of increased teen drunk driving but simply wish to lower the drinking age. To put statements into their mouths is misleading. Rather, it would be better to report what they stated as fact and then debate the issue here.</p>
<p>RE: Post #8:
Do not assume that these college presidents’ entire motivation for changing the drinking age is that they cannot handle campus drinking. Some believe in a lower drinking age and some do not for MANY reasons that are open to debate. Some see advantages and disadvantages to both sides of the legal drinking age.</p>
<p>Notice that the group of college presidents does not disclose who is paying for their campaign. However, the photography on their website looks like magazine advertising for the beverage industry, targeted at young people.</p>
<p>If their campus isn’t their major concern, they have no more expertise, or call for concern, than the average Joe (and a lot less handle on the data than folks who have been working in this area for years).</p>
<p>McCardell’s previous organization on this issue, Choose Responsibility, was a non-profit organization.</p>
<p>to post 8: i love a slippery slope too :)</p>
<p>Mini, their campus is their concern, no doubt about it. I was disagreeing with ID’s assertion that the entire motivation is that they cannot control their campus. Some believe there are advantages to a lower drinking age and some believe there are disadvantages.</p>
<p>From Amethyst Initiative’s own site:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I believe that they are not simply looking for a change in the law but to open debate on this issue…if you read their site.</p>
<p>“These higher education leaders have signed their names to a public statement that the 21 year-old drinking age is not working, and, specifically, that it has created a culture of dangerous binge drinking on their campuses.”</p>
<p>And have provided absolutely no evidence for either. Glad to see that they see themselves as “academic” leaders.</p>
<p>I propose that we raise the drinking age to 40 so that we can decrease adult drunk driving. If you disagree with me, then you favor more adult drunk driving.</p>
<p>I have just revised the title of this thread to more accurately, without bias, reflect the content of the article. I did this following post #15 above, so some earlier posts are reactions to the original title. We try, on CC, to have thread titles that are clear, unbiased, and not inflammatory.</p>