Amethyst Initiative - Rethink the Drinking Age

The presidents of colleges and universities like Duke, Dartmouth, Ohio State, Syracuse, Tufts, Colgate, Kenyon, Spelman, Johns Hopkins, Morehouse, and Washington and Lee are participants in a movement called the Amethyst Initiative. There are now 114 college and university president participants. CNN.com reports that this movement began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the drinking age. They are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.

"This is a law that is routinely evaded," said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory."

Mothers Against Drunk Driving says lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes. It accuses the presidents of misrepresenting science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem. MADD officials are even urging parents to think carefully about the safety of colleges whose presidents have signed on.

"It's very clear the 21-year-old drinking age will not be enforced at those campuses," said Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of MADD.

Both sides agree alcohol abuse by college students is a huge problem.

Research has found more than 40 percent of college students reported at least one symptom of alcohol abuse or dependence. One study has estimated more than 500,000 full-time students at four-year colleges suffer injuries each year related in some way to drinking, and about 1,700 die in such accidents.

Amethyst Initiative College & University Presidents

President Vincent Maniaci, American International College

President Jerry M. Greiner, Arcadia University

President Ronald Slepitza, Avila University

President Elizabeth Coleman, Bennington College

President Scott D. Miller, Bethany College

President Bobby Fong, Butler University

President David Wolk, Castleton State College

President Mark J. Tierno, Cazenovia College

President Carmen Twillie Ambar, Cedar Crest College

President Esther L. Barazzone, Chatham University

President John Bassett, Clark University

President Anthony G. Collins, Clarkson University

President James R. Phifer, Coe College

President Rebecca S. Chopp, Colgate University

President Robert Hoover, College of Idaho

President Mary Pat Seurkamp, College of Notre Dame of Maryland

President Frank Miglorie, College of St. Joseph

President Richard Celeste, Colorado College

President Dennison W. Griffith, Columbus College of Art & Design

President James E. Wright, Dartmouth College

President G. T. Smith, Davis & Elkins College

President William G. Durden, Dickinson College

President Robert Weisbuch, Drew University

President Richard Brodhead, Duke University

President Joseph R. Fink, Dominican University of California

President Donald R. Eastman III, Eckerd College

President Theodore Long, Elizabethtown College

President Thomas Meier, Elmira College

President Richard E. Wylie, Endicott College

President Jeffrey von Arx, Fairfield University

President Janet Morgan Riggs, Gettysburg College

President Sanford J. Ungar, Goucher College

President Jack Ohle, Gustavus Adolphus College

President Joan Hinde Stewart, Hamilton College

President Walter M. Bortz, Hampden-Sydney College

President Ralph J. Hexter, Hampshire College

President Susan DeWine, Hanover College

President Nancy O. Gray, Hollins University

President Richard B. Gilman, CSC, Holy Cross College (IN)

President Barbara Murphy, Johnson State College

President John J. Bowen, Johnson & Wales University

President William Brody, Johns Hopkins University

President Leon Richards, Kapiolani Community College

President S. Georgia Nugent, Kenyon College

President Daniel H. Weiss, Lafayette College

President Stephen D. Schutt, Lake Forest College

President Thomas J. Hochstettler, Lewis & Clark College

Carol A. Moore, Lyndon State College

President Leonard Tyler, Maine Maritime Academy

President Thomas J. Scanlan, F.S.C., Manhattan College

President Richard Berman, Manhattanville College

President Tim Foster, Mesa State College

President Ronald Liebowitz, Middlebury College

President Frances Lucas, Millsaps College

President Mary Ellen Jukoski, Mitchell College

President Christopher Thomforde, Moravian College

President Robert Michael Franklin Jr., Morehouse College

President Joanne V. Creighton, Mount Holyoke College

President Peyton R. Helm, Muhlenberg College

President Randy Dunn, Murray State University

President Thomas B. Coburn, Naropa University

President Fran Voigt, New England Culinary Institute

President Debra Townsley, Nichols College

President Robert A. Skotheim, Occidental College

President Lawrence Schall, Oglethorpe University

President E. Gordon Gee, Ohio State University

President Phil Creighton, Pacific University

President Loren J. Anderson, Pacific Lutheran University

President John Mills, Paul Smith’s College

President David W. Oxtoby, Pomona College

President Robert A. Gervasi, Quincy University

President Robert R. Lindgren, Randolph-Macon College

President William E. Troutt, Rhodes College

President David C. Joyce, Ripon College

President Gregory G. Dell'Omo, Robert Morris University

President Charles R. Middleton, Roosevelt University

President Pamela Trotman Reid, Saint Joseph College (CT)

President Timothy R. Lannon, Saint Joseph’s University (PA)

President Arthur F. Kirk, Saint Leo University

President Patricia Maguire Meservey, Salem State College

President JoAnne Boyle, Seton Hill University

Vice Chancellor Joel L. Cunningham, Sewanee: University of the South

President Carol T. Christ, Smith College

President Paul LeBlanc, Southern New Hampshire University

President Beverly Daniel Tatum, Spelman College

President Robert E. Ritschel, Spoon River College

President Daniel F. Sullivan, St. Lawrence University

President Harold J. Raveche, Stevens Institute of Technology

President Elisabeth S. Muhlenfeld, Sweet Briar College

Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Syracuse University

President J. Patrick O’Brien, Texas A & M University-West Texas

President Robert Caret, Towson University

President James F. Jones, Jr., Trinity College

President John M. Stamm, Trinity Lutheran College

President Lawrence S. Bacow, Tufts University

President Walter Harrison, University of Hartford

President Louis Agnese Jr., University of the Incarnate Word

President Jennifer Hunter-Cevera, University of Maryland--Biotechnology Institute

President C.D. Mote Jr., University of Maryland--College Park

President Jack M. Wilson, University of Massachusetts System

Chancellor William E. Kirwan, University System of Maryland

President Steven H. Kaplan, University of New Haven

President Geoffrey Shields, Vermont Law School

Chancellor Robert Clarke, Vermont State Colleges

President Ty Handy, Vermont Technical College

President Tori Haring-Smith, Washington and Jefferson College

President Kenneth P. Ruscio, Washington and Lee University

President L. Baird Tipson, Washington College

President Michael Bassis, Westminster College (UT)

President Sharon D. Herzberger, Whittier College

President James T. Harris, Widener University

President M. Lee Pelton, Willamette University

President Lorna Duphiney Edmundson, Wilson College

Read the CNN.com article about the Amethyst Initiative to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18 here and here.


plez sez: being a former college student (when the drinking age was 18) and a current alumni advisor of an undergraduate fraternity chapter, i have a unique perspective on the drinking age.

Georgia Tech Band & Budweiser Song

in all honesty, i do not recall binge drinking and drunkedness being a big issue during my undergraduate years... one could purchase and consume alcohol openly. to this day, the georgia tech band still plays the "Budweiser Song" between the third and fourth quarters at the football games; everyone bobs up and down to the song (the georgia tech version of the seventh inning stretch).

back then one could go to the frat houses on campus on friday and saturday night, and get free beer dispensed from one of those big ass beer trucks. people would get drunk back then and then go throw up all over the bathroom... that place was a disaster area on the weekends!

soon after i started college, the state of georgia began to raise the drinking age to 21 years. frat houses could no longer serve alcohol at their events. organizations could no longer advertise drink specials at their parties. but guess what? students still obtain fake id's, and older students still buy beer and alcohol for the underage ones, and students still sneak off and get sh*t-faced drunk... and still ralph all over the dorm bathrooms during the weekend!

as an alumni advisor for my college fraternity chapter, i've had to confront drinking issues with a few of the guys. but there are no fewer members now with a drinking problem, than we had when i was in college over 20 years ago!

personally, i feel that instead of criminalizing the behavior, responsible drinking should be emphasized, as it was back then. college freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will drink as long as there are college seniors to buy it for them or as long as they can get fake id's. i agree that the age should be lowered back to 18 and responsible drinking should be emphasized on college campuses.

Morehouse College's First White Valedictorian

Morehouse College is a Historically Black College (HBCU) in Atlanta, Georgia. It was founded in 1867, just a few years after the end of the Civil War to educate the recently freed Black men in the South. Morehouse has the distinction of not only being an exceptional institution of higher education (with notable alumni like Martin Luther King, Jr and Spike Lee), but it is also the only all-male HBCU. Well, Morehouse can now add its first white valedictorian to the list of notable facts.

Joshua Packwood is graduating from Morehouse with a 4.0 GPA and a degree in economics. He is a Rhodes Scholar and has already landed a plum job with Goldman Sachs in New York City. Joshua is a native of Kansas City, MO and was highly recruited out of high school. He picked Morehouse because of its reputation as one of the top HBCUs in the United States. He will be the first white valedictorian in the school's 141-year history.

Read the AJC article about Joshua Packwood here.


plez sez: several of my good friends and fraternity brothers (my fraternity's oldest chapter (pi) in the deep south is located at morehouse) are graduates of morehouse college. if i would have gone to an hbcu out of high school, morehouse would have been at the top of the list. at times, i regret that i didn't get to enjoy the "black experience" at a school such as morehouse.

i have written a few posts about the state of education in the black community and have touched on my thoughts about hbcus in general. save a precious few (morehouse, spelman, hampton, howard, etc.), a good number have outlived their usefulness as institutions of higher learning for an exclusive Black population. last year there was a report about problems at clark atlanta university: read my response here (...and i admit that all of their professors are not overpaid!).

a shining example of what is right can be found on the campus of morehouse college... and this year's valedictorian is just that! by diversifying their enrollment and actively pursuing non-Black students to their campuses, the hbcu can find relevance and renewed prowess in the pantheon of all colleges and universities. joshua's presence can only help raise the awareness of what a top notch school morehouse has become, his presence may not have the same effect at a school that struggles to matriculate quality students. i have no worry that even with more non-Black students, morehouse will continue it rich tradition of being a flagship hbcu.

kudos to morehouse colllege and to joshua packwood.

"M Train" - The Rap Video

When I was a student at Georgia Tech, we used to joke about the students who took the "M Train" - changed their major to management - when they couldn't hack it in engineering. Here is a cute video produced by two GT students.

"M Train" by Swaff and DBay

plez sez: although tempted on a few occasions to hop on the "m train," since i didn't enjoy the hazing i took as an electrical engineering student, i hung in there an got my EE degree from georgia tech!

i thought i'd post this on Saturday, May 3rd, since this is graduation day at georgia tech for the spring semester. one of the brothers in the fraternity that i advise is graduating today with his degree in - you got it - electrical engineering! CONGRATS ERIC!

The 6th Degree: Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.

You think you're smart, huh?!?

More Brain Stuff... From Cambridge University.

Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset c! an be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on!!

Psas Ti ON!

The blogger writes: "Not just that you can figure it out, but you can read it at nearly full speed. If our minds are so amazing, how come we keep doing such stupid things?"

[Hat Tip: The Happy Carpenter]


plez sez:

a mere 6 days after the inaugural segment comes the second installment of the Sixth Degree:

1st Degree: Lori's Old School Mix
2nd Degree: NewBlackMan
3rd Degree: The Casey Lartigue Show!
4th Degree: Asymmetrical Information
5th Degree: TigerHawk
6th Degree: The Happy Carpenter



What is the sixth degree of plezWorld? Find the answer here.

The 6th Degree: High Tech College Classroom

[Hat Tip: left cheek]

plez sez: since i've signed on to blog everyday for 2008, i will have to get alittle more creative in finding blog fodder. occasionally - well, probably more often than that - i will wander aimlessly, let's say about 6 blog roll links away from plezWorld to find a blog. i will then post something that i've found at that sixth blog: "The 6th Degree".

if nothing else, this will provide me (and plezWorld readers) the opportunity to see content that we would not ordinarily read.

1st Degree: Mirror on America
2nd Degree: Nat Turner's Revenge
3rd Degree: field negro
4th Degree: U.S.S. Clueless
5th Degree: Iron E (Fe+E)
6th Degree: left cheek

An Easy Read

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So just about everyone who stumbles upon plezWorld should be able to read it!


At first, I was a bit dismayed at the pedestrian level that my blog is ranked, but then I rationalized it this way: people covering a wide intellectual range can read and understand my blog.

I was also pleasantly surprised at the high level of the blogs that I have decided to include on my BlogRoll. Please take a few minutes to check out the College level and Genius level blogs that I read on a regular basis that are linked to plezWorld site (in no particular order): Booker Rising, Eddie Griffin, Francis Holland, Wandering Caravan, Field Negro, Skeptical Brother, sullsblog, Exodus Mentality, Liberal War Journal, Wandering the Ether, Ross Knight Photography, Nat Turner's Revenge, Electronic Village, Craig Bardo, and Jack & Jill Politics.

If you evaluate your blog, please post a comment here with its reading level.

The Truth About Black Men

A Public Service Announcement by the cast of "What Black Men Think"



COMING SPRING 2007

plez sez: The video speaks for itself... very eye-opening and interesting perspective that addresses a number of myths about Black men.

[hat tip: Black Male Appreciation]