Let them drink beer

Alfred Biddlecomb
Published: August 19, 2008

“Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”
— Vernon Wormer, Dean of Students, Faber College (From the film “Animal House”)

President Ronald Reagan put those words to good use when he signed the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act which required states to raise the minimum drinking age to 21 or risk losing
important federal highway funds.

Virginia, like many states at the time, had a two-tiered age requirement that set the minimum age for beer at 18 and the drinking age for hard liquor at 21. The new law was fairly well accepted with
national efforts already underway to curb drunk driving.

Two institutions hit the hardest by Reagan’s beer law were the U.S. military and college campuses. Our men and women in uniform were old enough to die for their country, but they couldn’t enjoy a cold
beer with friends. Likewise, kids on college campuses were now only allowed to be fat and stupid.

Two decades after it was forced on the states, the 21-year-old drinking age is coming under fire from an unlikely constituency — college presidents.

The 21-year-old drinking age gave colleges a tool to curb drinking in campus towns, yet it didn’t necessarily prevent college students from drinking. Now banned from public bars, many college students
take their drinking to dorm rooms, to off- campus housing and (unfortunately) into automobiles.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, nearly 100 college presidents, including the heads of Randolph-Macon, Washington & Lee and Hampden-Sydney, have signed a letter asking lawmakers
for “an informed and dispassionate public debate” on the possibility of lowering the drinking age to 18.

Many of these college presidents said they feel the focus on public drinking has resulted in a rise in binge drinking. Accidents and deaths due to binge drinking make headlines every year and put
colleges in tough situations. The theory is that if young people drink in the open where alcohol consumption is regulated, then there is less likely to be occurrences of “Animal House” antics behind closed
doors.

Having enjoyed both the military and college (back-to-back) I must say that I see merit in these arguments. When I was 18 and stationed at the 32nd Street Naval Station in San Diego, the military
leadership had a similar problem faced by college presidents today.

The Navy faced a dilemma with the 21-year-old drinking age. The San Diego naval base was only seven miles from Tijuana, Mexico, where 18-year-olds could drink Tequila all night and get into BIG
trouble. Guys would get thrown into jail for jaywalking on a Saturday night and not be released until Thursday. Mexico could be a dangerous place for young sailors.

The Navy’s solution allowed base enlisted clubs to serve beer to all sailors while keeping the minimum age for mixed drinks at 21. Having enjoyed my share of Budweisers at the Scuttlebutt Club on 32nd
Street, I really can’t recall anything getting out of hand.

When I attended Longwood College in the early 1990s, beer was sold at the Student Union only on Thursday nights to those of legal age. That was a struggle for me since I was usually working next door
in the campus newspaper office on those nights.

But this was the beginning of the end of legal drinking on many campuses like Longwood and it also resulted in a migration of students partying off campus — much to the dismay of local law
enforcement. While Farmville isn’t Tijuana, there’s still trouble to be found.

Lowering the drinking age would be a major test for college students and their claim on adulthood. Not only can you die for your country at 18, you can also be put on trial and thrown in prison for breaking
your country’s laws.

Bringing the drinking age down to 18 (which is the norm in most countries) is only one solution to fighting binge drinking and careless behavior in general. By bestowing this new individual freedom upon
college students, states would have to do their part by putting teeth in the laws that guide this behavior.

The prospect of being kicked out of school — whether for cheating or irresponsible drinking — makes someone think twice about their behavior. To say there won’t be cases of carelessness and abuse
would be naïve. Then again, perhaps those are the people who shouldn’t be in college in the first place, as Dean Wormer alluded to in his famous “Animal House” quote.

Alfred Biddlecomb is the former opinion page editor for the Potomac News and the Manassas Journal Messenger.