Liebowitz joins with peers, signs McCardell's initiative

Author: Livingston Burgess

The so-called "work hard, play hard" ethic returned to Middlebury this week, along with its adherents. The two come on the heels of a summer that saw President Emeritus John M. McCardell, founder of the group Choose Responsibility, develop the "Amethyst Initiative" in an effort to generate discussion about the effectiveness of the 21-year-old drinking age. The initiative includes, as its visible centerpiece, a "Presidential Statement," whose 129 signers include President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz

The statement, available on the initiative's website, www.amethystiniviative.org, summarizes Amethyst's goals, calling for, among other things, "an informed and dispassionate public debate over the effects of the 21-year-old drinking age." It does not explicitly reference the proposals of Choose Responsibility, such as legal age 18 or licensing young adults to drink, as Liebowitz pointed out in an entry on his blog explaining the decision to sign on to the initiative.

"The 18-year drinking age is not even mentioned in the Amethyst petition," he wrote. "Many [college presidents], including myself, signed because it was a good way to bring attention and debate to the broader issue."

Other signers include the presidents or chancellors of other NESCAC schools such as Hamilton, Trinity and Tufts, as well as universities as large as Ohio State University and Duke. All testified that, in their experience as administrators, the current system was failing them and their students. They drew parallels to the prohibition era, and questioned the "highway funds 'incentive'" employed by the federal government to standardize the drinking age.

"Amethyst Intitiative" was settled on for a name as a reference to the ancient Greek belief that the purple stone, Amethyst, would prevent intoxication from overreaching the limits of moderation.

Though it avoids endorsing any course of action other than dialogue and examination, the presidential statement, along with the initiative as a whole, has drawn criticism to itself and to signatory colleges, particularly in the always sensitive area of recruiting and admissions.

"It's very clear the 21-year-old drinking age will not be enforced at those [signatory] campuses," said Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) president Laura Dean-Mooney in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. She suggested that parents reconsider sending children to schools whose presidents signed the statement, although the Amethyst Initiative makes no mention of disobedience or refusals to enforce the current drinking age.

The initiative does exist, however, at the intersection of several, sometimes diverging agendas. Its website includes a link to a section of the debate site www.opposingviews.com where Choose Responsibility argues for lowering the drinking age, and MADD is an organization with which they have locked horns in the past. As for the relationship of Amethyst and Choose Responsibility to Middlebury College, an issue raised by McCardell's ties to the instutution as well as Liebowitz's signing, there is no official connection, but the question of underage drinking, and that of drinking at large, remains a pressing one for students and administrators.

Liebowitz made it the subject of the Baccalaureate Address to the class of 2008 in May, when he spoke to the relationship of drinking behavior in college to drinking behavior later in life, and to personal responsibility and well-being in general. He also lauded a group of Feb orientation leaders who "encouraged their charges to respect the drinking laws," and offered observations similar to Amethyst Initiative's statement that "a culture of dangerous, clandestine 'binge-drinking' - often conducted off-campus - has developed."

"Recognizing our own inability to counteract, to date, the emergence of this new, self-destructive work hard, play hard culture gives us some guidance on how to be more effective in dealing with this challenge," Liebowitz said, echoing that statement.

The address, however, focused less on the need for the intervention of elected and appointed leaders - the province of Choose Responsibility and the Amethyst Initiative - and more on the responsibility of the college and its students to work within the current system to change habits of alcohol comsumption.

For now, the Initiative has not progressed past the stage of accumulating presidents' and chancellors' signatures, but the status of the drinking age remains at the center of Middlebury's and other schools' political landscape.