Would lowering the legal age help colleges curb alcohol abuse?
College presidents like to picture happy scholars thinking deep thoughts in seats of higher learning. They don’t like to think about students projectile vomiting and occasionally dying. But in the last twenty years, a surge of binge drinking by mostly underage students has spawned a growing number of date rapes and trips to the emergency room. For years, many colleges turned a half-blind eye to underage drinking. But as the casualties pile up, state legislatures are passing tougher liability laws. Colleges have been forced to try to crack down on drinking in the dorms and frats, but bingeing has hardly gone away. Mostly, it’s moved underground–kids secretly gathering to “pre-game,” to down shots before going to supposedly “dry” college events, or off campus, where there’s even less control. Angry neighbors complain about vomit in the streets and late-night noise, and city cops are generally less indulgent than campus cops. Increasingly, it seems, frustrated college presidents are tryi
