08/25/08 Underage Drinking

I have to ask myself why college leaders from some of the most prestigious universities in the nation would want lawmakers to lower the legal drinking age. The only really honest answer I can come up with is "to pass the buck". Basically they are looking for an easy way out of an embarrassing and "inconvenient" problem that has been transpiring for years; underage drinking on campus. Alcohol abuse by college students is reportedly a very serious and large problem, but will lowering the dinking age actually curtail or change this? No, it will only result in more fatalities due to excessive drinking at an even younger age; beginning the pattern for binge drinking on the nation's high school campuses. Taking more responsibility for their student body would be a better place for universities to start in dealing with this problem. Granted, enforcing the 21 year old drinking age would be a great undertaking, but a necessary one. If universities want us to entrust them with our children's minds, they need to realize that they will have to safeguard the entire package.