|
The war on social drinking is not working. Nationally and in Georgia, DUI laws, zero tolerance laws and underage drinking laws have succeeded in criminalizing our youth for drinking beer. Georgia youth have been thrown under the bus by Metro Atlanta DUI courts, police and other Georgia DUI authorities. Launched in July 2008, the Amethyst Initiative is made up of chancellors and presidents of universities and colleges across the United States including here in Georgia. 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. Madd claims that lowering the drinking age will increase Georgia DUI offenses and DUI violatiosn elsewhere. However, simple logic dictates otherwise: banning alcohol from campuses drives students off campus to shady bars and off campus house parties where conduct is unregulated and in the shadows. Further the students drive drunk back to campus. The Athens, Georgia (home of the University of Georgia) police chief told my fraternity brothers and I in the 80's that closing down fraternity parties meant that he went from 3 problems a night on the weekend to 300 hundreds problems. It just scattered the problem. On campus parties mean close supervision by University police, early last call times, segregation of college youth from rougher elements, and less driving. Keeping kids on campus makes kids safe and not like a bunch of marines on shore leave who can't remember where they left their car. Don't believe me. The list of Amethyst supporters contains some of the most prestigious colleges in the country. These folks are on the front lines and have learned from experience about how to keep our kids safe while they sow their oats Further, binge drinking is a bigger problem in the U.S. than foreign countries where underage drinking brings a shrug from youth and not a high five like in the U.S..
President Vincent Maniaci, American International College; President Jerry M. Greiner, Arcadia University; President Ronald Slepitza, Avila University; President Elizabeth Coleman, Bennington College; President Scott D. Miller, Bethany College; President Bobby Fong, Butler University; President David Wolk, Castleton State College; President Mark J. Tierno, Cazenovia College; President Carmen Twillie Ambar, Cedar Crest College; President Esther L. Barazzone, Chatham University; President John Bassett, Clark University; President Anthony G. Collins, Clarkson University; President James R. Phifer, Coe College; President Rebecca S. Chopp, Colgate University; President Robert Hoover, College of Idaho; President Mary Pat Seurkamp, College of Notre Dame of Maryland; President Frank Miglorie, College of St. Joseph; President Richard Celeste, Colorado College; President Dennison W. Griffith, Columbus College of Art & Design; President James E. Wright, Dartmouth College; President G. T. Smith, Davis & Elkins College; President William G. Durden, Dickinson College; President Robert Weisbuch, Drew University; President Richard Brodhead, Duke University; President Donald R. Eastman III, Eckerd College; President Theodore Long, Elizabethtown College; President Thomas Meier, Elmira College; President Richard E. Wylie, Endicott College; President Jeffrey von Arx, Fairfield University; President Kendall A. Blanchard, Georgia Southwestern State University; President Janet Morgan Riggs, Gettysburg College; President Sanford J. Ungar, Goucher College; President Jack Ohle, Gustavus Adolphus College; President Joan Hinde Stewart, Hamilton College; President Walter M. Bortz, Hampden-Sydney College; President Ralph J. Hexter, Hampshire College; President Susan DeWine, Hanover College; President Nancy O. Gray, Hollins University; President Barbara Murphy, Johnson State College; President John J. Bowen, Johnson & Wales University; President William Brody, Johns Hopkins University; President S. Georgia Nugent, Kenyon College; President Daniel H. Weiss, Lafayette College; President Stephen D. Schutt, Lake Forest College; President Thomas J. Hochstettler, Lewis & Clark College; Carol A. Moore, Lyndon State College; President Leonard Tyler, Maine Maritime Academy; President Thomas J. Scanlan, F.S.C., Manhattan College; President Richard Berman, Manhattanville College; President Tim Foster, Mesa State College; President Ronald Liebowitz, Middlebury College; President Frances Lucas, Millsaps College; President Mary Ellen Jukoski, Mitchell College; President Christopher Thomforde, Moravian College; President Robert Michael Franklin Jr., Morehouse College; President Joanne V. Creighton, Mount Holyoke College; President Peyton R. Helm, Muhlenberg College; President Randy Dunn, Murray State University; President Thomas B. Coburn, Naropa University; President Fran Voigt, New England Culinary Institute; President Debra Townsley, Nichols College; President Robert A. Skotheim, Occidental College; President Lawrence Schall, Oglethorpe University; President E. Gordon Gee, Ohio State University; President Phil Creighton, Pacific University; President Loren J. Anderson, Pacific Lutheran University; President John Mills, Paul Smith’s College; President David W. Oxtoby, Pomona College; President Robert A. Gervasi, Quincy University; President Robert R. Lindgren, Randolph-Macon College; President William E. Troutt, Rhodes College; President David C. Joyce, Ripon College; President Gregory G. Dell'Omo, Robert Morris University; President Pamela Trotman Reid, Saint Joseph College (CT); President Timothy R. Lannon, Saint Joseph’s University (PA); President Arthur F. Kirk, Saint Leo University; Vice Chancellor Joel L. Cunningham, Sewanee: University of the South; President Carol T. Christ, Smith College;President Paul LeBlanc, Southern New Hampshire University; President Beverly Daniel Tatum, Spelman College; President Daniel F. Sullivan, St. Lawrence University; President Elisabeth S. Muhlenfeld, Sweet Briar College; Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Syracuse University; President J. Patrick O’Brien, Texas A & M University-West Texas; President Robert Caret, Towson University; President James F. Jones, Jr., Trinity College; President John M. Stamm, Trinity Lutheran College; President Lawrence S. Bacow, Tufts University; President Walter Harrison, University of Hartford; President Louis Agnese Jr., University of the Incarnate Word; President Jennifer Hunter-Cevera, University of Maryland-Biotechnology Institute; President C.D. Mote Jr., University of Maryland--College Park; Chancellor William E. Kirwan, University System of Maryland; President Steven H. Kaplan, University of New Haven; President Geoffrey Shields, Vermont Law School; Chancellor Robert Clarke, Vermont State Colleges; President Ty Handy, Vermont Technical College; President Tori Haring-Smith, Washington and Jefferson College; President Kenneth P. Ruscio, Washington and Lee University; President L. Baird Tipson, Washington College; President Michael Bassis, Westminster College (UT); President Sharon D. Herzberger, Whittier College; President James T. Harris, Widener University; President M. Lee Pelton, Willamette University
|
Resources 
