Running head: ALCOHOL ON CAMPUS

Alcohol on Campus
Taylor Rilling
Azusa Pacific University

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Alcohol on Campus

Since the Uniform Drinking Age Act became law in 1984, the minimum legal
drinking age (MLDA) has been 21. The use and abuse of alcohol on college campuses by
students has lead administration to question whether the MLDA of 21 is appropriately
placed. There is a current debate that the MLDA needs to be changed to 18. This is also
a result of institutions of higher education being inconsistent in enforcing the law on
campus. Because there are two sides to the law it is also important to understand how
institutions of higher education are enforcing this law on campus.
According to Main (2009) the drinking age of 21 needs to be rethought. The
Amethyst Initiative and Choose Responsibility are both initiative that seek to lower the
drinking age to 18. The thinking behind these initiatives is that is one was to take away
attraction of breaking the law, then American youth will cease to binge drink (p. 36).
They also predict that alcohol related violence and abuse would stop if 18-year-olds were
given the privilege to drink. If military soldiers are given the privilege to drink when
they are 18 and in the military, then it would be easier to enforce and underage drinking
would lessen (p. 39).
The other view of the issue says that the drinking age should stay at 21. Saylor
(2011) says that keeping the drinking age at 21 is research proven (p. 330). There is
research that supports where the drinking age is because when it was lowered to 18 there
were more alcohol related driving accidents and reports of binge drinking. Most
advocates of keeping the drinking age where it is argue that lowering the drinking age is
not a solution. The problems of alcohol related abuse and violence would not disappear
if the drinking age were lowered. Simply lowering the drinking age so institutions of

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higher education do not have to enforce the drinking law would mostly likely lead to
larger negative effects on the larger population of America (p. 332).
Most institutions have many challenges as they try to enforce alcohol policies.
According to Creemans, Usdan, Umstattd, Talbott, Turner, & Perko (2011) most of these
policies include: off-campus alcohol use, violating campus alcohol policies, underage
drinking, binge drinking, pre-gaming, and post-partying (p. 428). In attempts to address
the problem of alcohol on campus institutions have created policy and certain types of
enforcement. Some of these enforcements include campus law enforcement being
present and judiciary processes. However, most of the enforcement policies at
institutions are inconsistent. While alcohol policies are enforced at sporting events, they
are not being enforced in the Greek system (Creemans, Usdan, Umstattd, Talbott, Turner,
& Perko, 2011; Toomey, Miazga, Lenk, Erickson, Winters, & Nelson, 2011). Even
though the enforcement of policies is inconsistent, larger college campuses have shown to
be more likely to enforce the alcohol drinking age (Toomey, Miazga, Lenk, Erickson,
Winters, & Nelson, 2011).
Reducing alcohol problems on campus is something every institution of higher
education is working towards. It is obviously a huge issue and an institution must plan
on how they will implement enforcement (Saltz & DeJong, 2002). Saltz and DeJong, on
behalf of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, give five steps for an
institution for prevention planning and evaluation. These steps are: identifying specific
goals and objectives, reviewing the evaluation research, outlining how the intervention
will work, creating and executing a data collection plan, and providing feedback to the

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intervention program. A lot of prevention includes intervention with students or those

who break the alcohol policies through judiciary and student conduct cases (p. 17).
Overall, I think the attempts to enforce the alcohol policies on campus will always
be an endless pursuit. Alcohol is part of college culture and will always be.
Unfortunately, the use of alcohol in college is coupled with binge drinking and violence.
I think institutions are doing the best they can with what they have. On the other hand
administration could do a better job in consistently enforcing alcohol policy in all aspects
of campus life. The best example of this is how institutions enforce alcohol policy at
sporting events, but not in the Greek system. I understand that it is probably more
difficult to enforce, but it is a start.
In efforts to lower the drinking age to 18, I disagree. I believe the drinking age
should stay as is. Even if it is changed to 18 problems like binge drinking and other
violence that take place because of drinking will still happen. Changing the MLDA will
by no means stop youth between the ages of 18-21 from drinking. In fact, I know that
this would not work because I have seen how bad it is to having the drinking age at 18 in
other countries. Alcoholism is a huge problem in parts of Europe and even then drinking
is embedded in the culture. I believe that binge drinking, alcohol related violence, and
even alcoholism.
Some further changes that I would add to institutional policy are, though I am
unsure how practical, to regulate any alcohol that would be around any student who is
underage. I see underage drinking as one of the bigger problems at an institution that can
be addressed. I think this could be done by making any student organization or Greek
house that uses alcohol pay extra fines in order to have alcohol on campus and if there are

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present students that are underage. This may help to minimize the amount of alcohol on
campus and student choices in allowing underage students to events that include alcohol.
I also think that institutions need to be more consistent in enforcing policy and to do so in
all areas of campus that would have alcohol present. On the other hand I do not think
there is a clear way to dissuade the culture of drinking on college campuses.
Overall, I do not think this alcohol problem on college campuses is going
anywhere. Anything that is cultural takes a lot of work to change. If this enforcement
came not from solely the government and institutional side, but more of the student side I
think it could make a slow change. More students than just student leaders would need to
be involved in helping to change the culture. Because I do not think this problem is
going anywhere the focus should still be to educate through responsibility. Alcohol
consumption on college campuses is here to stay and I therefore want to help students
learn to be responsible in their use of it.

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References

Cremeens, J. L., Usdan, S. L., Umstattd, M. R., Talbott, L. L., Turner, L., and Perko, M.
(2011). Challenges and recommendations to enforcement of alcohol policies on
college campuses: An administrators perspective. Journal of American College
Health, 59(5), 427-430.
Main, C. T. (2009). Underage drinking and the drinking age. Policy Review, 155, 33-46.
Saltz, R. F., and DeJong, W. (2002). Reducing alcohol problems on campus: A guide to
planning and evaluation. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2,
1-22.
Saylor, D. K. (2011). Heavy drinking on college campuses: No reason to change
minimum legal drinking age of 21. Journal of American College Health, 59(4),
330-333.
Toomey, T. L., Miazga, M. J., Lenk, K. M., Erickson, D. J., Winters, K. C., and Nelson,
T. F. (2011). Enforcing alcohol policies on college campuses: Reports from
college enforcement officials. Journal of Drug Education, 41(3), 327-244.