Why The Amethyst Initiative Needs To Work

By Ben Byrnes
Rotunda ReporterRecently, a friend shared a link to a documentary aptly titled "Haze" that came out last year. The documentary is as much a criticism of hazing as it is the problems of binge drinking, which are all too often interconnected. The documentary tells about Lynn "Gordie" Bailey, who at 18, passed away from a hazing ritual shortly after pledging to the Chi Psi fraternity at the University of Colorado. The ritual involved a binge drinking episode. At one point during the documentary, Bailey's father says the mistake so many alcohol prevention programs make is that they place too much emphasis on not drinking and driving; however, parents talking to their children about the dangers of binge drinking is not emphasized nearly as much.

The father's comment highlighted a major problem that more college and university presidents face. Echoes of the Amethyst Initiative came to mind when I heard this. During the late 1970s, some states passed legislation that increased the drinking age to 21, but it was not until 1984 that Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, solidifying 21 for all states by taking away 10 percent of highway funding from states that did not comply (the power to lower the drinking age still remains in the hands of states). Considering an entire generation of parents missed what the drinking age of 21 meant on college campuses, it makes sense that Bailey's father would not know about the dangers of binge drinking. Because an entire generation of parents is unaware of the problems, many of their children are going to school without ever talking to their parents about the negativity of excessive drinking. The students only care about making sure to alert the designated driver to give them a ride home.

As much credit as I give to the "Parents: The Anti-Drug" campaign, it is not as successful as it could be in helping address the problems of binge drinking. It places alcohol into the large category of drugs that people can become addicted to and the repercussions of that addiction, but does not address how to help solve the problem of excessive drinking and how colleges and universities can alleviate some of those problems. It simply serves as a platform for education on the issue of the dangers of alcohol abuse, but not much else.

Two of the most popular and well-known campaigns to prevent drunk driving, RADD (the Entertainment Industry's Voice for Road Safety, according to its website), and MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) use aggressive ad campaigns to make people aware of the dangers of drinking and driving. These ads cause an adverse reaction to the solution by scaring people away from drinking, making it look cool not to drink or using personal anecdotes to manipulate emotions. None of these are productive avenues for thoughtful dialogue. In some cases, it causes the general public to adhere to outdated facts just so they can still be right. However, no side will ever be right and new data needs to be addressed and many of the opponents need to leave 1984 behind.

The Amethyst Initiative is an effort put forth by Chooseresponsiblity.org, which is a non-profit organization that seeks to lower the drinking age to 18, although the Initiative does not mean that all presidents and chancellors support lowering the drinking age. "The Presidential Statement does not advocate a specific drinking age. Someone who favors raising the age could also sign this statement," reads the web-site. The Initiative is more about furthering thoughtful discussion on whether or not the current drinking age is working, and thoughtful dialogue is something from which we could all benefit. This is why I believe that President Cormier and the Board of Visitors should seriously consider why they continue refusing to put the name of this University on the list of signatories.