By Chelsea Reil, News Staff

In a report released by Washington University St. Louis in the July issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, researchers found binge drinking is down among people ages 18 to 23 that aren’t in college, but it continues to rise for those in college. This comes after about 100 college presidents have called on lawmakers to lower the drinking age to 18, saying the higher age actually encourages binge drinking on campuses.
The movement, called the Amethyst Initiative, began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the US drinking age, which is among the highest in the world.
Northeastern president Joseph Aoun has not signed the Amethyst Initiative.
‘While we applaud the spirit of bringing the important issue of high-risk college drinking to the forefront of public discussion,’ the issue should be broadly considered from a public health and educational perspective’ rather than focus solely on the legal drinking age,’ said Philomena Mantella, senior vice president for enrollment management and student affairs. ‘As the most recent study points out by comparing’ similar age students in different environments, the target of our efforts should be on’ achieving a culture change on US college campuses.’
Using national surveys from 1979 through 2006, researchers looked at trend over time in rates of binge drinking, defined as having five or more drinks in a night at least once in the past month.
‘The group that normally drinks the most is young men, and their rates have declined precipitously since 1979,’ said Richard Grucza, head researcher of the report. ‘There has been a large increase in binge drinking among college-aged women attending college and a much smaller increase among women not in college aged 12 to 23.’
Grucza said he was surprised by the ‘lack of change’ on college campuses.
Drinking among high school students, ages 12 to 18, have significantly decreased over time. Grucza attributes this to the raising of the drinking age to 21, which was implemented nationwide by 1988. Grucza said another contributing factor to the decrease may have been zero-tolerance laws now carried in all 50 states, which make it illegal for minors to have any amount of alcohol in their bloodstream.
‘Drinking is really difficult behavior to change,’ Mantella said. ‘Northeastern is consistent with other colleges and universities that we too have to teach students to make good decisions and to make sure that we have a culture that doesn’t push drinking. I think that Northeastern has been aggressive in being apart of the research on college binge drinking.’
While many people think that students in college have a more stable surrounding and a steady schedule that would discourage irresponsible behavior, Grucza said that might have been true at one point, but not any more.
‘Essentially, people on college campuses have ready access to alcohol,’ he said. ‘They are less likely to be married or have children, which are two things that keep people from drinking excessively. And the day to day, having to go to a job everyday, keeps them from these kinds of activities.’
Northeastern is in favor of anything that is a dialogue on the best way to look at healthy choices for college students, even if that includes discussion about the legal drinking age in America, said Mantella.
‘This is a question across the United States,’ she said. ‘Drinking has been and continues to be a big part of college life.’
Joe Anderson, a senior business major, said he feels as though lowering the drinking age would be a good thing.
‘I think it might lower trips to the hospital and things like that,’ he said. ‘But kids in college are still going to drink a lot. It’s just the way it is.’