Amethyst Initiative Unites Frat Boys & Fogeys

It looks like University Presidents really are listening to their students.

Of course, if you can't hear all the 19-year-old college kids in this country clamoring for more beer, you must be deaf.

In a move that I predict will be endorsed by more college newspapers than any initiative ever, dozens of university presidents have signed on to the Amethyst Initiative to open the debate to lowering the drinking age to 18.

18-year-olds celebrated this bold proposal by doing shots to Duke University President Richard Brodhead, who is one of the more prominent names on the initiative's list of signatories found here .

I know this debate has been played out many times, but it always seems like once some heavyweight silver-haired dudes get involved, people tend to take it more seriously.

Of course, MADD is pretty mad about the whole thing and there are some pretty solid statistics that show this would probably increase alcohol-related traffic fatalaties. But statistics be damned. What do you think? Vote on our decidedly unscientific poll here.

(More from the AP)


Richard Brodhead
President of Duke University