A New Prohibition
As the drinking age heads for 21, students—and colleges—wonder how to react.
Behold the landscape of student
drjhking, and how quickly it can
change. At the University of
Maryland there is a quiet, grassy
lawn affectionately known as “La
Plata Beach,” although it’s nowhere near
any body of water. Until three years ago
“the beach” was the site of raucous beer
blasts every spring weekend, and the
ground was worn as hard and smooth as
sanded walnut from the poundings of
countless staggering feet. There is the de
luxe banquet room run by the university’s
food service, with its oh-so-tasteful wall
paper and sparkling chandeliers. It used to
have sticky tile floors and ersatz disco decor
when it was called The Pub, and freshmen
used to top off orientation lectures there
with a few cold ones. In the basement of the
student union you’ll find Dory’s Sweet
Shop, where the booziest thing you can buy
is the rum cake. Once this was a bar called
The Hole in the Wall, and it looked just the
way you’d think. Goodbye to all that, to the
years when “party” really was an action
verb in College Park. For in 1S)82 the State
of Maryland raised its drinking age to 21,
and the campus taps ran dry.
Soon the drought will be spreading, as
more and more colleges and universities
crack down on campus drinking. Spurred
by the current federal campaign to make all
states raise the drinking age to 21, schools
have begun to close campus hangouts, ban
public keggers and otherwise restrict the
possession and use of alcohol. In response,
some about-to-be-underage students have
taken to the streets in protest; many more
have begun to take their liquor behind
closed doors and down deserted country
lanes. That’s largely the way students used
to drink before the liberated ’70s—and not
all of them, or the administrators either, are
exactly delighted to get back to where they
once belonged.
The new era of campus prohibition
springs from the nationwide crusade
against drunken driving. Drinking laws
now vary widely from state to state (map),
and students frequently drive across “blood
borders” to carouse, sometimes becoming
involved in accidents. That fact helped
Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other
lobbying groups to persuade Congress last
year to pass a law that will penalize any state
that doesn’t raise its minimum drinking age
to 21. Maverick states could forfeit millions
in federal highway funds; Texas, for exam
ple, stands to lose $33 million if it doesn’t
comply by Oct. 1, 1986, and an additional
$66 million if it fails to act by Oct. 1, 1987.
Some states may challenge the constitution
ality of the law., but most are expected to go
along sooner or.later.-’ • ; . ..
Federal transportation' officials. argue
that this approach will save lives, and statis
tics do bear them out. Drivers in the 18-to
20 age group, for example, are twice as
likely as the average motorist to be involved
in an alcohol-related crash, and drunken
driving accidents are the leading cause of
death in this age group. Critics of the new
The newly restrictive drinking climate
has roused some students to put down their
mugs and take up the cause. A year ago
1,500 students stormed an administration
building, at Notre Dame in response to a
clampdown on dorm parties. Last fall stu
dents. ffom all over Wisconsin staged a
“drink-in” on'the Capitol steps in Madison.
And in October an Illinois State march
against city antidrinking ordinances turned
ugly as 500 protesters blocked traffic, dam
aged police cars arid staged an impromptu
kegger for se ven hours in the middle of Li .S.
Highway 51.
The battle comes at a time when drinking
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law counter that its limits are arbitrary:
drunken-driving accidents and fatalities in
volving people 22 to 24, for instance, are
only slightly less common. Twenty-one
may have been picked because, historically,
ii was the age of majority, but many rights
and responsibilities, like voting, now begin
much younger. A Newsweek On Cam
pus Poll indicates that students themselves
are almost evenly split about whether there
should be a national legal drinking age of 21.
Hut many believe, like South Carolina soph
omore Katherine Morgan, 19, that there’s a
coming double standard: “I could be mar
ried, have children, have had abortions, but
1 couldn’t have a glass of wine at my own
wedding. The message is, we’re adult in one
respect and childish in another.”
seems to be especially popular—or at least
especially noticeable—on campus. There is
some debate among alcohol researchers as
to whether college drinking is measurably
greater now than it was a decade ago. But
with drug use declining, drinking is unde
niably a more fashionable and open part of
college life. According to the Newsweek
On Campus Poll, 72 percent of all college
students drink on occasion, more than a
third at least once a week. As ever, beer
remains the drink of choice—by a 2-1 mar
gin over wineand alcohol. “The most visible,
accessible and utilized drug on the college
campus is alcohol,” says Stephen Nelson,
Dartmouth’s director of student activities.
How important is booze to college life?
“It’s next to sex,” jokes South Carolina