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Coe’s Phifer leads by signing Amethyst Initiative
Reporter: Editorial
There are an estimated 50,000 college students in the Corridor during a typical school year, and the majority of them are under the age of 21. And the odds are, like it or not, many of the students under the age of 21 binge drink.
It is a serious problem in the Corridor and across the nation and needs a serious debate.
For years, institutions of higher learning and the communities they inhabit have been trying to come up with solutions to help combat this problem. Nothing has worked.
A new initiative, called the Amethyst Initiative, was spearheaded by university and college presidents to seek “a serious debate among our elected representatives about whether current public policies are in line with current realities.”
It is clear to us that many of the public policies concerning underage drinking are not working and something needs to be done.
We appreciated the leadership that Coe College’s President James Phifer displayed in signing the statement by the Amethyst Initiative. He is one of nearly 130 presidents from such relatively unknown institutions across the country like Chatham University and Wilson College to well known ones like Ohio State and Duke University. Unfortunately, he was the only college or university president in the Corridor who was willing to sign this controversial statement. The interim president at Wartburg College, William E. Hamm, also signed the statement.
As Coe College’s spokesman Rod Pritchard said in a news report, “We don’t know for sure that lowering the drinking age will make the binge drinking issue better, but it’s calling for a study and that’s what President Phifer supports.”
The statement Mr. Phifer signed as finally drafted does not, by design, prescribe a particular policy change. It does, however, state clearly the signatories' belief that 21 is not working as well as the public may think, that its unintended consequences are posing increasing risks to young people.
University of Iowa President Sally Mason did not sign the Amethyst Initiative. She said in a prepared statement prefacing her unwillingness to sign the pledge, “I believe that a serious cultural change is necessary to solve this problem. Because I believe there is no single solution to the problem, I am convinced that the discussion must go beyond the question of whether lowering the drinking age will reduce the harmful effects of excessive drinking.”
A serious cultural change isn’t going to happen without a serious public policy debate. Maybe it’s not lowering the age, but maybe it is. We won’t know unless this important public policy debate is engaged.
At the very least, this initiative is raising the elevation of this very serious issue and helps put it correctly in the laps of elected officials who have been shirking their responsibilities on this issue for many years.
Let the debate begin.
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