Is it time to lower the drinking age?

University presidents in Minnesota had sobering words Tuesday about the idea raised in a statement signed by more than 100 fellow college and university presidents, including the president of Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.

"It's time to rethink the drinking age," the extraordinary statement begins. "21 is not working." It calls for a public debate on what the right age should be.

A debate is a good idea, university leaders said. But in a state smarting from recent student deaths from alcohol binges, they want no part of anything that could be misread as an endorsement of underage drinking.

"It's really easy to read incorrectly," said Earl Potter, president of St. Cloud State University, which has wrestled with its party school reputation. Potter said he is in favor of a national conversation about the drinking age but did not sign the statement.

Said Potter: "With there being so much tragedy in Minnesota around binge drinking and student deaths, I'm not going to take any step which deviates from my core message: We want our students to behave within the law, and we want the ones who are of age to drink responsibly."

More than 100 college presidents, including the heads of Ohio State University, Dartmouth College and Duke University, signed the statement, called the Amethyst Initiative.

"Adults under 21 are deemed capable of voting, signing contracts, serving on juries and enlisting in the military, but are told they are not mature enough to have a beer," the statement said.

Gustavus president clarifies

Gustavus Adolphus President Jack Ohle was the only signer from Minnesota. He issued a statement Tuesday to clarify his position. The initiative "is not about lowering the drinking age," he said.

"We need serious, sustained, unfettered debate about the drinking age and the reality of life on a college campus and how those two things are aligned," Ohle's statement said. He was at a retreat Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

Since last fall, there have been at least five alcohol-related deaths among young people in Minnesota college towns, most recently a 21-year-old Minnesota State University, Mankato, student who died after a night of heavy drinking Aug. 4. State legislators flirted with lowering the drinking age in bars to 18 as recently as March, but the proposal never gained traction.

Mankato takes students' drinking seriously and has brought experts to campus to discuss the problem, said University President Richard Davenport. None of the experts recommended lowering the drinking age.

Presidents who signed the initiative could be misinterpreted as favoring underage drinking, he said.

"I'd be worried about increased drinking on those campuses," he said.

'Presidents are frustrated'

It's wrong to assume that support of a debate on the drinking age translates to support of underage drinking on campus, said Grace Kronenberg, director of the Amethyst Initiative.

"This emphatically does not mean the age is not being enforced," Kronenberg said. "It just means that the presidents are being frustrated by the environment and the situation that the drinking age puts them in, and that the status quo is not the best way to go about educating young people."

At least 10 presidents called to add their names to the petition after it went public Monday, she said.

Kim Braun, co-student body president at Gustavus Adolphus, said she doesn't see Ohle's support of the statement as a sign that he would turn a blind eye to underage drinking.

"I don't think it's sending the message that it's acceptable to break the law," said Braun, who supports lowering the drinking age to 18.

The debate is complicated by a lack of data. Since Congress mandated in 1984 that states establish 21 as the drinking age in return for federal highway funding, there is evidence that the change had some benefits, notably decreased highway deaths, said Ed Ehlinger, director of the Boynton Health Service at the University of Minnesota.

But there is no data to support or refute lowering the age, he said. He said a conversation on the subject would be useful.

Such a conversation is necessary because of the place drinking holds in American culture, St. Cloud State's Potter said.

"The deaths in Minnesota are evidence that we have a problem, and it should be a national concern," he said. "I do think that we need to be talking about our policy and our approaches to teach responsible behavior."

Libby Nelson • 612-673-4758