Bob CollinsCollege presidents around the country are pushing for a lower drinking age. They say it would lower the amount of binge drinking going on. This issue, of course, is of prime concern to the Upper Midwest, where binge drinking far exceeds the national average.
The movement called the Amethyst Initiative began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago, the Associated Press reports.
“This is a law that is routinely evaded,” said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization. “It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory.”
Other prominent schools in the group include Syracuse, Tufts, Colgate, Kenyon and Morehouse.
But even before the presidents begin the public phase of their efforts, which may include publishing newspaper ads in the coming weeks, they are already facing sharp criticism.
It’s unlike the idea is going to get a lot of support from politicians. A survey out today shows parents are “fed up” with party schools and politicians who advocate a lower drinking age.
Take the survey:
(Update: See the signatories below the fold.)
President Vincent Maniaci, American International College
President Jerry M. Greiner, Arcadia University
President Ronald Slepitza, Avila University
President Elizabeth Coleman, Bennington College
President Scott D. Miller, Bethany College
President Bobby Fong, Butler University
President David Wolk, Castleton State College
President Mark J. Tierno, Cazenovia College
President Carmen Twillie Ambar, Cedar Crest College
President Esther L. Barazzone, Chatham University
President John Bassett, Clark University
President Anthony G. Collins, Clarkson University
President James R. Phifer, Coe College
President Rebecca S. Chopp, Colgate University
President Robert Hoover, College of Idaho
President Mary Pat Seurkamp, College of Notre Dame of Maryland
President Frank Miglorie, College of St. Joseph
President Richard Celeste, Colorado College
President Dennison W. Griffith, Columbus College of Art & Design
President James E. Wright, Dartmouth College
President G. T. Smith, Davis & Elkins College
President William G. Durden, Dickinson College
President Robert Weisbuch, Drew University
President Richard Brodhead, Duke University
President Donald R. Eastman III, Eckerd College
President Theodore Long, Elizabethtown College
President Thomas Meier, Elmira College
President Richard E. Wylie, Endicott College
President Jeffrey von Arx, Fairfield University
President Kendall A. Blanchard, Georgia Southwestern State University
President Janet Morgan Riggs, Gettysburg College
President Sanford J. Ungar, Goucher College
President Jack Ohle, Gustavus Adolphus College
President Joan Hinde Stewart, Hamilton College
President Walter M. Bortz, Hampden-Sydney College
President Ralph J. Hexter, Hampshire College
President Susan DeWine, Hanover College
President Nancy O. Gray, Hollins University
President Barbara Murphy, Johnson State College
President John J. Bowen, Johnson & Wales University
President S. Georgia Nugent, Kenyon College
President Daniel H. Weiss, Lafayette College
President Stephen D. Schutt, Lake Forest College
President Thomas J. Hochstettler, Lewis & Clark College
Carol A. Moore, Lyndon State College
President Leonard Tyler, Maine Maritime Academy
President Thomas J. Scanlan, F.S.C., Manhattan College
President Richard Berman, Manhattanville College
President Tim Foster, Mesa State College
President Ronald Liebowitz, Middlebury College
President Frances Lucas, Millsaps College
President Mary Ellen Jukoski, Mitchell College
President Christopher Thomforde, Moravian College
President Robert Michael Franklin Jr., Morehouse College
President Joanne V. Creighton, Mount Holyoke College
President Peyton R. Helm, Muhlenberg College
President Randy Dunn, Murray State University
President Thomas B. Coburn, Naropa University
President Fran Voigt, New England Culinary Institute
President Debra Townsley, Nichols College
President Robert A. Skotheim, Occidental College
President Lawrence Schall, Oglethorpe University
President E. Gordon Gee, Ohio State University
President Phil Creighton, Pacific University
President Loren J. Anderson, Pacific Lutheran University
President John Mills, Paul Smith’s College
President David W. Oxtoby, Pomona College
President Robert A. Gervasi, Quincy University
President Robert R. Lindgren, Randolph-Macon College
President William E. Troutt, Rhodes College
President David C. Joyce, Ripon College
President Gregory G. Dell’Omo, Robert Morris University
President Pamela Trotman Reid, Saint Joseph College (CT)
President Timothy R. Lannon, Saint Joseph’s University (PA)
President Arthur F. Kirk, Saint Leo University
Vice Chancellor Joel L. Cunningham, Sewanee: University of the South
President Carol T. Christ, Smith College
President Paul LeBlanc, Southern New Hampshire University
President Beverly Daniel Tatum, Spelman College
President Daniel F. Sullivan, St. Lawrence University
President Elisabeth S. Muhlenfeld, Sweet Briar College
Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Syracuse University
President J. Patrick O’Brien, Texas A & M University-West Texas
President Robert Caret, Towson University
President James F. Jones, Jr., Trinity College
President John M. Stamm, Trinity Lutheran College
President Lawrence S. Bacow, Tufts University
President Walter Harrison, University of Hartford
President Louis Agnese Jr., University of the Incarnate Word
President Jennifer Hunter-Cevera, University of Maryland-Biotechnology Institute
President C.D. Mote Jr., University of Maryland–College Park
Chancellor William E. Kirwan, University System of Maryland
President Steven H. Kaplan, University of New Haven
President Geoffrey Shields, Vermont Law School
Chancellor Robert Clarke, Vermont State Colleges
President Ty Handy, Vermont Technical College
President Tori Haring-Smith, Washington and Jefferson College
President Kenneth P. Ruscio, Washington and Lee University
President L. Baird Tipson, Washington College
President Michael Bassis, Westminster College (UT)
President Sharon D. Herzberger, Whittier College
President James T. Harris, Widener University
President M. Lee Pelton, Willamette University
