JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

A bouncer checks IDs, marking patrons as either under 21 or able to drink, outside Top of the Stairs in Blacksburg. Statistics from an alcohol abuse prevention report undertaken by Virginia Tech in 2006 and released this year, show Tech students to be "among the heaviest drinkers in the state and nation."

JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Albermarle County sheriff's Deputy Candace Pack arrests a 19-year-old for underage drinking at the Foxfield Races in Charlottesville. The Foxfield Races are well-attended by students from the University of Virginia and other colleges.

BLACKSBURG -- Small liberal arts colleges and large research universities, historically male institutions and those founded to educate women -- Virginia is home to a wide variety of institutions of higher education.

And while their size, programs and missions differ, they share one issue that is nearly universal in its importance and difficulty to address -- alcohol and its associated problems.

Universities have written and rewritten alcohol policies, developed alcohol education programs and researched the frequency and extent of student drinking.

While the problem is getting better by some measurements -- such as the percentage of students who drink -- binge drinking on college campuses remains a problem viewed as so intractable that it has spurred a national movement to re-examine the drinking age.

"Most campuses will clearly say alcohol's their biggest problem," said Ed Spencer, vice president for student affairs at Virginia Tech.

"All of us in student affairs hold our breath. And that's why we want to engage in this conversation, because there's so much high-risk drinking that's going on. It's sort of, 'There but for the grace of God goes our campus.' "

An effort launched in July by former Middlebury College President John McCardell -- and dubbed the Amethyst Initiative -- calls into question the wisdom of the current 21-year-old drinking age and asks for renewed public debate about it.

The initiative's mission statement has been signed by 135 university leaders, including presidents at Virginia Tech, Washington and Lee University, Hollins University and Hampden-Sydney College.

It states that the current drinking age is not working and calls for "an informed and dispassionate public debate ... to invite new ideas about the best ways to prepare young adults about alcohol."

McCardell is a W&L graduate and member of the university's board of trustees. His son is now a student at the school steeped in Southern traditions, Greek life and a reputation for heavy drinking.

A different culture

W&L President Kenneth Ruscio, a 1976 graduate of the school, doesn't remember binge drinking being a big problem when he was a student.

The age for drinking beer in Virginia was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1974.

He thinks changing the drinking age back to 21 in the mid-1980s led to different behavior from students.

Ruscio, who worked as a faculty member and administrator at W&L and the University of Richmond before becoming president of his alma mater in 2006, said students drink more heavily in private before going out, because the law encourages them to load up on enough alcohol to last them the night.

And at a university with an honor system that allows for unproctored exams and campus buildings open 24 hours a day, he said the disrespect for the drinking law promotes an atmosphere not in sync with the rest of the university community.

"One of the consequences I see of a drinking age that's widely disregarded is perverse attitudes towards the law and very clever ways of trying to hide their violations of the law," he said. "I don't think that was the case back in the time when the drinking age was lower."

Other baby boomer college leaders echo Ruscio's recollections.

Tech's Spencer graduated from the University of Rochester in 1967, when the drinking age in New York was 18.

"The motivation for drinking was to have a good time, maybe get a little buzz," he said. "The guy who was passed out on the couch, unconscious, went to the emergency room, was very much the exception. And people would look at that person and say, 'What's wrong with you?' "

Spencer, who has been at Tech since 1983, said that mentality has been reversed. Now students who don't binge drink are asked what's wrong with them.

The drinking age change was the result of federal legislation supported by groups seeking ways to curtail drunken driving.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving touts passage of the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act among its greatest victories and cites statistics that claim it saves 1,000 lives a year.

Spencer was against changing the drinking age at the time, but isn't sure if changing it back is the solution.

"I think it would be very difficult to go backwards at this point. Number one, it's sort of like going against motherhood and apple pie to try to change this."

Numbers game

Spencer also described a "statistics war" going on between the Amethyst Initiative and MADD over the past year.

As the initiative has gained attention in the media, MADD has had to rebut claims and point out statistics that the organization believes prove its point that the current drinking age is working.

"You take a problem out of university presidents' hands and you put it in the hands of high school principals," said Chris Konschak, executive director of MADD for Virginia and the District of Columbia.

"There's no data that shows that binge drinking would go down by lowering the drinking age."

Addressing parents of incoming students in August, University of Virginia President John Casteen summed up the difficulty of using existing statistics to draw any solid conclusions.

"One of the problems with the debate is that both sides are somewhat hyperbolic. We know, for example, that since the 21-year drinking age was adopted, traffic deaths involving young people and alcohol have gone down," he said.

"It's not often said that they went down for the decade before that also. It's not often said that such deaths have gone down nationwide. It's very hard to judge cause and effect."

UVa also has a reputation for heavy drinking -- with one tradition involving seniors drinking a fifth of alcohol at the final home football game.

The university has launched several efforts in recent years to address drinking on campus, but Casteen has not signed the initiative. He said he's yet to see evidence to prove changing the drinking age would improve the situation on his campus or any other.

Steve Clarke, director of Tech's Alcohol Abuse Prevention Center, has conducted multiple studies on drinking at the university over the past several years.

The lack of data from before the drinking age changed makes it difficult to draw strong conclusions, so much of the discussion falls back on anecdotes.

He said he thinks in many ways the problem has stagnated recently, and he can point to some numbers that show it has improved.

In 1999, 12 percent of students surveyed at Tech said they didn't drink. That number grew to 20 percent in a recent survey. Vandalism in residence halls is also down at the school, another indication that drinking is down. Drinking among high school students nationwide is at an all-time low.

On the other hand, statistics from an alcohol abuse prevention task force report undertaken by Tech in 2006 and released this year show Tech students to be "among the heaviest drinkers in the state and the nation."

Tech President Charles Steger declined to be interviewed about the initiative but released a statement saying he signed it because he recognizes drinking is a serious problem nationally and at Tech.

Clarke said he thinks there is something to the argument that lowering the drinking age would allow for better supervision of drinking and promote a healthier discussion about it.

As it stands now, students learn how to drink in fraternities and apartments with no role models to teach moderation, Clarke said. He also thinks some frank discussion with underage students about drinking is stifled by the law.

But the task force report includes 24 recommendations to address the problem. They include limiting tailgate hours, increasing education, establishing more alcohol-free events, making penalties easier to enforce and cooperating with the surrounding community.

The report makes it apparent that it is not a simple problem with one solution.

"What evidence is there, among college students, that they can handle it?" Clarke said of changing the drinking age.

"Right now they're not and it's illegal. By suddenly making it legal, that's not, to me, going to suddenly change their behavior. If anything else, it's going to open the floodgates, possibly, to other people more likely to consume alcohol. ... It's very hard to change a culture."