Putting the Keggers Back into College

Putting the Keggers Back into College

by Michele

Recently, a group of 100 college presidents called on state legislatures to lower the drinking age back to 18 from the current 21.  They believe that the current absolute prohibition on alcohol on college campuses drives drinking underground and leads to binge drinking.

In high school, I was an A-student, editor of the school newspaper and I ran with the smart crowd rather than the jocks or the stoners or the preps.  We liked to think of ourselves as cool nerds.  And while we would never have done anything to jeopardize our college admissions, there were certain rules we routinely broke.  Underage drinking was a big one.  Some of my favorite memories of high school are of getting dressed up and sneaking into this bar called the Russian Lady.  It was a grown-up place with a yuppie singles scene, and it felt so glamorous.  We never had a problem getting in.  Hey, it was Connecticut in the late 70s.  Lifestyles were permissive; nobody carded you.  The drinking age was 18.  At 16, with makeup on, my friends and I could pass with no problem, and the management seemed happy enough to have young girls drinking at the bar.

I was reminded of some of my misadventures recently when I saw the movie Superbad, pretty much the entire plot of which revolves around nerdy high school kids trying to buy alcohol for a party.      Needless to say, they succeed, not only in buying the alcohol, but in getting laid, becoming cool and cementing their friendships along the way.

In college, alcohol continued to play an important role in social life, but it was no longer the grail.  When I went to college, the drinking age was 18, and keggers abounded. From freshman year on, my friends and I would compile lists of parties to go to on the weekends.  We'd turn up our noses at the frat-boy keggers and look for the artsier ones.  Alcohol wasn't the point, or maybe I should say it was beside the point because it was so readily available.  The groovy Eurotrash crowd took it for granted, and went on the prowl for mushrooms or cocaine instead.  Occasionally people had problems with alcohol that were actually acknowledged as problems.  I knew girls who got drunk enough to get date raped.  Occasionally people would throw up, pass out, make fools of themselves. No fatalities or major injuries.  The only student who died of substance abuse when I was in college dropped dead in Harvard Square after a night of heavy cocaine use.  The long and the short of it is, I can't imagine college with no alcohol.  The campus drug dealers would have had a bonanza, I'll tell you that much.

The crusade to raise the drinking age to 21 was led by MADD on the theory that it would lower traffic fatalities.  This report from NIH suggests that there is some real relationship.  Speaking of traffic fatalities -- I was in Italy recently.  The roads suck and people drive like maniacs, weaving in and out of traffic in tiny little cars or on motorcycles with no helmets.  They look like they're having fun.  They also have a lot more traffic fatalities than we do.  Which I guess leads me to wonder about the trade-offs we make.  I live in a state that does not require seat belt use if you're over 18, and you know what -- I like being able to make my own decision about whether to buckle up or not.  I mean, if you really want to reduce traffic fatalities, you'd prohibit driving.

Of course, the Italians also have very different attitudes about drinking than we do.  My kids, who are 8 and 12, were routinely offered wine when we were there.  Which reminds me that my trainer, who grew up in the West Indies, doesn't drink at all.  He was raised with no rules about alcohol and claims he did all his drinking by the time he was 15.

The higher drinking age has had no effect on me personally, since it went up long after I was legal.  But I now have friends with college-age kids, and I hear them complain.  Good kids getting in big trouble for having a beer at a party on a Saturday night.  These are kids who grew up with parents who drink responsibly.  If I had to write the law, I think I'd put the drinking age at 19, to better keep alcohol out of the high schools, but I wouldn't want my own kids to be forbidden to drink when they're in college.  The key is to raise kids to drink responsibly, and never to drink and drive, or get into a car with anybody who does. My two cents, FWIW.

Comments

[Josh]

Hmm. That sounds like a drinking-age advancement for college students, sort of the opposite of a draft deferment, but to the same basic effect.

This is a fun topic, and I can't wait to see the posts.

[William Simon]

Growing up in Chicago and Las Vegas during the Rat Pack Years, alcohol was an accepted part of life, nothing special; food in the kitchen, books in the library, booze at the bar.

I had a lot of fun breaking some rules along the way, but the day I turned 21 I had my first legal drink.

It just didn't taste the same....

[michele]

I hear you, William. ;-) And Josh -- what do YOU think?

I'm off to teach this morning. Back later. Talk amongst yourselves.

[JanetLynn13]

Wow, I am surprised to hear someone with a law enforcement background in favor of dropping the drinking age. Great topic for this blog. I've been thinking about this since I heard the news on this, and I think I am in favor of dropping the age, but am interested in hearing more opinions from everyone here. I usually lean towards removing a restriction because as the taboo goes away, the incentive might follow, but I didn't think about the drinking/driving aspect. How do we make it even more difficult for drinking teens to drive?

[Josh]

I'm not really for lowering the drinking age. My son doesn't drink, and for various reasons, I don't think he will drink much, if at all. He also thinks that drugs are immoral, not just illegal, so those would be out. I hope my daughter doesn't drink. Drugs, I don't care about. If they are like me, they'll use their heads most of the time and survive just fine.

I didn't drink much in high school--the drinking age was 21, and it was too much of a hassle to go the 15 miles to New Jersey. I went to college in the middle of Pennsylvania, where the drinking age was always 21 and any other state was three hours away, so drinking, which we always wanted to do, wasn't easy. Belonging to a fraternity, with all its wonderful opportunities for easy date rape and the less frequent consensual sex, wasn't an option.

So, I guess my feeling is to leave it as it is, but to have a more European outlook, where children are taught the proper use. I don't want it lower, I don't want more people doing it.

[Judy Larsen]

I agree, Michelle. I went to college when the drinking age was 18--and the girls who went the craziest with alcohol were the ones from states with a higher drinking age. They were the binge drinkers. I knew enough to NOT want to feel like crap the next day. I now live in a state where the governor has put stopping college drinking as one of his main goals (he also thinks arming teachers with guns is a nifty idea). So good kids are getting ticketed/arrested for doing what I did legally. It's stupid.

I think lowering the drinking age to 19 might be a great compromise.

[Harley]

I have no idea what my opinion on this is! I came from Nebraska, where the drinking age was 19 and I was sneaking into bars with false i.d.s and binge drinking, but I think I would've done that regardless of the drinking age. It was just, you know, my destiny.

I'm in denial about the fact that my kids will ever drink, drive, or have sex. We're still working on reading in complete sentences and learning the multiplication tables.

Here's one thing: if they ever bring back the draft, they have to match the drinking age with the age they can send kids to war. That's a no-brainer.

[Kathy Sweeney]

This topic came up last week at a faculty convocation. Lots of interesting viewpoints from professors, most of whom are in favor of it.

Here is my take. I think it's like these abstinence programs. The reason they don't work is that you just cannot tell kids 'just say no'. Not with all those hormones flying around and the natural human urge to connect.

The same applies to drinking. Kids are going to drink if they want to. Hell, I spent so much time on the IUP campus when I was in high school that I should have gotten AP credits or something.

I went to college in a dry town where there was no booze permitted on campus. Are you kidding me? We couldn't even manage to wait to get to the frat houses. Every dorm in the place had booze, and everyone knew where to get it. It's part of the college experience, like it or not.

I understand MADD's position - believe me. But we can do better than an absolute prohibition. Today, a DUI is not what it was when I was in college 30 years ago. And rightly so. But this business of ruining a kid's record because you catch him with a beer? That's not right. Keep the DUI laws tough as hell - but give kids old enough to be emancipated, support themselves, and make adult decisions the opportunity to learn how to make good judgements without risking their permanent criminal records.

[Nancy Martin]

One of the worst weeks of my life was when my dear friend's son overdosed and died after crashing a frat party. He was found facedown on a sofa, dead from liquor and drugs and inhaling his own vomit. His mother--who had done everything humanly possible to educate and demystify and support--was beyond devastated. For the rest of her life. Would a change in the drinking age have prevented his death? I don't think so, but for me (who grew up drinking and driving because that's what there was to do in my rural town) he's the poster boy for college drinking.

Good topic, though, Michele. It's important to hear all sides of this issue.

[storyteller Mary]

I was such a nerd that I went to college to study -- though I did take time out to try to stop the war in Vietnam. (Being a known activist also meant I didn't dare smoke MJ, as the FBI was watching and would have loved an excuse to make an arrest).
This proposed change in drinking age was recently debated on Donnybrook (local PBS station news discussion panel) and the mother of a college-age student made the same point -- http://www.ketc.org/productions/productions_Donnybrook.asp
The accident statistics were also brought up. You make a good point, that all driving is risky. I wrote the following a few years ago, after driving Hwy. 70 to UMSL for a poetry class.

Auto-Mobile
by Mary Garrett

Ray Bradbury, the guru of space travel, will not drive a car.
More die each year from cars than from Vietnam at its worst,
And where are the marches in protest?

Instead, we daily enter thin sheaths of metal, and Auto-propel
Ourselves at impossible speeds over hard concrete.
Only a thin line of white paint separates cars on either side.
We seldom ask if this trip, this job, this play, this class,
This visit is worth the risk.

Highway rules are followed, most of the time;
Defensive vigilance is maintained by drivers, most of the time;
Guardian angels or luck protects us, some of the time.

When those fail, the first law of physics prevails:
Two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

[Kerry]

I was really intrigued when I heard this report. Michele, I like your compromise and Kathy, I agree about making DUI's the real crime, along with date rape. I am informed by a few of my own experiences and stories from my daughter.

I went to college when the drinking age in California was 21 and the only rule in our dorm was "don't get caught." Of course everyone drank. Not me, thought, not at that time.

I'm confident that my daughter has had access to alcohol from mid-high school on. She and her friends have also been very responsible: designated drivers, or staying put, or taking taxis are the rule. She told me that the biggest reason for binge-drinking among teens (including many college students) is the lack of steady access to alcohol. In other words, alcohol is present sporadically and in large quantities. So when it's available, they drink too much.

I don't know if that's true or not, but it makes sense to me. And we have more important things to worry about on college campuses than whether or not the students are popping a brew now and then.

[Kathy Sweeney]

Another legal point is important here - in many states, just possession of alcohol, or being at a party where there is alcohol, is enough to get an underage person's drivers' license suspended.

This is NOT the same as DRIVING under the influence, and in my opinion, shouldn't be treated that way. I understand the intent is to deter underage drinking, but I think it's unjust.

Should there be a penalty? Yes. Should it infringe upon a young person's ability to earn a living? No. And don't ask a about work permit licenses - they are tougher and tougher to get.

So a college student who has a job, or happens to live outside of walking distance to his classrooms (on many campuses, even the 'on-campus' housing is miles from the actual academic buildings) is punished for getting caught with a beer - or even without one - at a party by taking away his ability to transport himself to work and school. Too harsh.

That is one of the big arguments for changing the age -- apparently no one wants to consider making the drinking while NOT driving penalties more reasonable. Ahhh, paternalistic government - it works so well, doesn't it?

I could go off on a rant here, but I won't. Just wanted to add this to the mix.

As for date rape - Kerry is right - maybe we need a MADR or something - the law has been way too slow in keeping up with this awful crime.

[Josh]

Glad I could hijack a little with that date rape comment. Makes me feel loved.

[michele]

OK, I'll bite. Why does the date rape comment make you feel loved, Josh?

Yes, I have a law enforcent background, and I'm not condoning breaking the law, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be changed. I guess I agree with what Kathy and Kerry have said. I like 19, because I think it better keeps the booze away from the really younf kids -- 14, 15 or 16 YOs who happen to have older siblings or friends in high school who'll buy for them. But after that, hey, if you can enlist, you should be able to drink. I'm all for keeping the penalties for the associated crimes (DUI, date rape) as draconian as possible though.

[ArkansasCyndi]

Great discussion guys. Legal age was 21 when I went to college. Did not stop (or even slow) us down from drinking.

The problem with prohibition is that it's like dangling a shiny toy in front of an infant. He'll want it. Tell me I CAN'T do something and that'll just make me want it.

Education is the key. No prohibition. (Same could be said for sex and teens, I believe)

[gaylin in vancouver]

The legal age for drinking in Canada is 19. It doesn't stop binge drinking, under-age drinking - DUI's or date rape. I think the media has glamourized drinking and partying to an extent that young people feel it is expected of them to emulate the behaviour they are bombarded with.
I had my first drink at 18 1/2 and thought it was gross. Too bad more kids don't think that. I don't envy the youth of today with the images they have been inundated with, where bad behaviour is 'celebritized' and good behaviour is mocked. If you behave bad enough, just do a stint in rehab and start over . . . if you are not dead.

[Juli]

Honestly, I'd put no age on drinking. Let the parents decide when it's ok for a kid to have alcohol and 18 is supposed to be an adult, free to make your own decisions, including drowning yourself in your own vomit, if that's your choice. However, I'd make DUI's a much more serious crime with NO legal blood alcohol limit and jail time for a first offense. Killing yourself-fine. Killing other people? Not so much.

[ALynneP]

I agree with Kerry's daughter that because alcohol is (was, for me) hard to come by when you're 15-20, you tend to drink more the few times you have the chance.

When I was in college, my friends and I were so poor (spending money poor, not no-food poor) that we didn't drink very much. I guess the guys I hung out with drank cheap beer, but I didn't like it so I rarely drank. Maybe the solution is to send our kids to college with no money.

I'm with Harley, glad to not have to think about it yet. Although having to explain to my 7 year old what testicles are for was no treat last night!

[Becky Hutchison]

When I started at UT/Knoxville, the legal drinking age had just been lowered from 21 to 18. Since I was only 17 at the time, it was really hard to buy a drink. (HOWEVER, at 14 I was able to get into bars even though the drinking age was 21.) Just because I couldn't buy a drink in a restaurant or club didn't stop me from drinking and didn't affect how much I drank.

I'd occasionally drink too much, but it was more a case of low self-confidence around guys I liked and feeling more outgoing if I drank. Once I overcame the self-confidence problem, I quit drinking...except for an occasional glass of wine or beer. As for drugs, my close friends would take lots of different kinds, but I didn't like the way they made me feel, so I didn't participate when they used. Also, drugs didn't do anything to enhance my self-esteem, so I didn't see the benefit to my mind or body.

Most of the people I know who drank and did drugs did it to be cool and relax their inhibitions...probably like most of the kids who binge on college campuses today. Too bad there isn't a way to teach self-esteem to all teenagers in a way that it would seep into the core of their internal self-worth chatter and remain there forever. Maybe then overdrinking and doing drugs would be very low or nonexistent on their life "things to do."

[xena]

Soooo....I worry. I worry about my 18 year old heading off for college.
Back when the earth's crust was cooling, when I went to college at FSU, I had had a sip of my dad's beer on summer family vacations. If I wanted to taste wine at my grandmother's huge state department visitor's dinners I could. (The fruit cup was always in brandy BTW. Reminds \me of the homemade root beer story.) I even had a date in the 9th grade with a senior in the Theatre Dept. who poured us cuba libres (rum & cokes) in his red corvair until he spilled it on me and we had to find a swimming pool to fall into to get the smell out of my dress so my parents wouldn't know. Oh I was swimming alright. Vowed never again to do that. When I got to college drinking was not on the "to do" list.
Besides...I was a dance major. Can't dance if you've done anything but motrin. I never have done any drugs or smoked anything to this day. I like white wine with dinner. (Hate champagne as it gives me a headache.) and hope my son will make the same sensible choices.
I was also the St. Pauli Girl in 1985. Three parties a night getting bar patrons to buy my beer was my job. That and signing a zillion posters "You'll never forget your first girl." and flashing some cleavage. Left me saying ya know...beer is good food...but only in moderation. Another life. Never do that again either.
My son and his friends have indulged in beer...in my house...thinking I wouldn't notice in his room. They went nowhere, played video games and slept until noon. He knows I'm not keen on that but since they weren't walking or driving the streets I felt he needed to feel safe to try beer at home. Not to the point of passing out but he can have one.
But still I worry. He's 1500 miles away and in an artsy fartsy school now where I'm sure he'll be wanting to socially fit in and I'm sure there will be a lot of temptations out there...underage or not.
19 sounds like a good age. One year of making it by yourself and knowing right from wrong and not getting in trouble. No parent wants the phone call with the trembling voice that tells you your kid is in trouble.
I also hold the Bars responsible for saying you can't have any more. Set a limit on any age person drinking. Not just the 19 year old. I know they need to use the sale of alcohol as a vice and make money but if the MADD or the MADR want to go after anyone it's the bartender that should be held equally responsible for anyone who's had more than enough. Or the St. Pauli Girl.
Just saying.

[michele]

OK, wait a minute -- Xena, you MUST guest blog about being the St. Pauli girl. What a talking point on a resume!

I agree with everything eveybody's said about drumming responsible behavior into our children's heads. We've been doing don't smoke and don't drink and drive for a while now, and my kids are only 8 and 12. If we raise 'em right, they should be able to learn to handle the responsibility and avoid the pitfalls.

[Jody]

Legal age in Kansas when I went to school was 18 - only for 3.2 alcohol content beer. For everything else, you had to be 21. I was a good kid for the 18 part. No illegal alcohol for me then, but I was drinking the other alcohol (and not getting carded) before I turned 21.
I'm the mom who didn't buy wine coolers for myself to keep in the fridge when they were first faddy because I KNEW that was what my young daugher would like. I was right. That's the one thing she would have drank out of anything we had at home. She never liked whiskey or beer. As an adult of 32, she still prefers wine coolers and wine over beer and the other hard stuff.
I think 19 sounds like a good age to make it legal. Or we should change the voting age back to 21 & not let them in the Armed Forces until 21 as well.

[xena]

Soooo....okay Michele...I have a few stories to share and it was an interesting time in my life. Let me think about it and dig up some photos.
And don't forget...our children learn from our example.
Just saying.

[ArkansasCyndi]

Here are all the St. Pauli Girls from the 80's, 90's and 2000's. Which one are you?

http://www.beerinfo.com/index.php/pages/stpauligirls.html

[xena]

Soooo.... I'm the one that looks like the one sitting on the keg with the checkered socks. They gave me this horrible wool outfit that I immediately copied in cotton as the Florida sun did not go with a wool outfit. Especially in the Summer. What were they thinking? And it was just like the girl on the bottle. Not some skimpy cheerleader outfit as some of those girls are wearing. Remember it was 23 years ago.(Aside from the bodice of the white blouse being low-cut, my outfit was just like the girl on the bottle...a full red flowing skirt trimmed with royal blue ribbon with a white ruffled petticoat, black stomacher and loose royal blue apron, a red kind of pill box hat and I seem to remember a red choker with a little gold heart dangling from it. And... well... the checkered socks. I made those out of white Lycra with royal blue magic marker.)
Thanks for the memories Cyndi!
You never forget your first girl!
Just saying.

[ArkansasCyndi]

What were they thinking with those socks? BRAWHAHAHAHA

But what a great line in your bio. I look forward to seeing you blog on this

[KarinNH]

I am not sure what to think about this topic. I teach college students and students often have so much misinformation about drinking that it is dangerous.

I'll never forget one of them telling a story in class about drinking in high school and how they'd turned a kid who had passed out on his side "so he wouldn't choke" and left him in a tent. (Apparently it never occured to them that he might roll over! They actually thought that was safe.)

My own kids didn't drink in high school. They'd been at a presentation by a neurologist--outside of school--who told them that alcohol affects the development of the brain and since adolescents' brains don't fully develop until they are in their early 20s, it is possible to permanently damage one's brain--particularly the decision-making and impulse-control portions.

The point he made: "Did you ever meet a middle-aged guy who acted like he was 14 or 15? There is a good chance he might have abused alcohol as a teenager and his brain is now incapable of ever fully developing." Powerful point.

So my older son had his first drink in college and never acquired a taste for more than a drink or two. The younger one is off now and it is scary.

I used to think lowering the age was a better way to handle the issue, but a student who did research for a persuasion paper found that contrary to popular opinion, Europe doesn't have fewer issues with alcohol and adolescents--just different ones. She actually changed her position and argued against lowering the age.

But some of the current laws are just ridiculous! In NH, "there is no such thing as an underage designated driver." A kid driving a friend home can be charged with possession because the friend is considered "a human container full of alcohol" and the driver will lose his or her license. Sigh. I am much more terrified about drinking and driving than about drinking.

No easy answers, I'm afraid.