Five bars are clustered on Route 1 just south of the University of Maryland, College Park campus. Three liquor stores are just north of the university. No wonder, students say, that drinking is a problem.
"Pretty much the only thing you have to do in College Park is go to the bar," said Alex Beuchler, a UM student and president of the Resident Hall Association. "You're going to sneak a drink in the residence hall and binge drink quickly because you don't want to get caught, or go to one of the bars."
More than 100 students, faculty and staff at Maryland gathered yesterday for an "Alcohol Summit" to talk about the widespread use of alcohol on campus and ways to curtail heavy drinking - including a proposal from some college presidents to possibly lower the drinking age.
The presidents' proposal has drawn condemnation from Mothers Against Drunk Driving and others who say it would lead to increased traffic fatalities among young people and have a trickle-down effect that would spur more drinking problems in high school.
But college presidents say the situation on their campuses has only worsened. Last month, for instance, the University of Maryland campus police transported 16 students to hospitals to be treated for alcohol poisoning. And a survey of freshmen at one large public university found that 35 percent of those who drink experience blackouts.
"We have yet to figure out how to deal with this growing social problem," said C.D. "Dan" Mote Jr., UM president. Mote was one of 100 college presidents to sign on this summer to the so-called Amethyst Initiative, which says the drinking age of 21 "is not working" and has helped create a culture of dangerous, clandestine binge drinking.
Student leaders who spoke yesterday split on whether the drinking age should be lowered to 18 - three in favor, three against and one undecided. But they all agreed that students drink on campus, in dorms, and off campus, and that it leads to sexual assault, violent behavior, injuries and academic problems.
"Students come to college with this mentality that 'I'm only here for four years, I need to drink as much as I can because in the real world I can't go out on a Tuesday night,' " said Selam Maru, president of the Panhellenic Association, a campus organization of sororities. But Maru said the country should work first on education and intervention for underage drinkers before lowering the drinking age.
