Others said that the illicit nature of alcohol makes it something exciting that students want partly because they're not supposed to have it. They said outlawing alcohol hasn't helped and that students would be better off if they learned to drink responsibly before leaving home for college.
"Students would be coming in with a little more, I hate to say this, more experience drinking," said Nizar Dowla, a student who is head of a health group on campus and supports a drinking age of 18.
Senior Brad Docherty said the "abstinence only" approach favored by authorities who support the current drinking age only encourages students. "Anytime an authority figure mentions it, it's in the context of 'No, don't do it,' " said Docherty, 21, from Pittsburgh. "So for students who engage in drinking, they won't know how to do it in a responsible way."
Students and officials said that more education and treatment are needed, such as screening to identify heavy drinkers as freshmen as well as better parental notification when students get in trouble. About 60 to 70 students a year are taken to hospitals for treatment, campus police said.
One expert pointed to a lack of enforcement of drinking laws. "Merely educating people about the consequences of underage drinking - that may help and it may reduce it a little, but unless there's some serious enforcement, I don't think it's going to be significant," said James Fell, a senior program director at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Calverton, Md.
Saying that Maryland is one of 20 states with a loophole that needs to be closed, he noted that those younger than 21 are prohibited from purchase and possession but not consumption.
Each state makes its own law, but all 50 states raised the drinking age to 21 by 1988 after Congress tied federal highway funds to doing so.
Alcohol use must be socialized while students are living at home, said Robin Sawyer, an associate professor in the department of public and community health at Maryland, instead of alcohol being treated as something evil. He said the extent of binge drinking on campus convinces him that the drinking age of 21 is ineffective.
"I have a daughter who's a freshman who lives on campus and tells me alcohol is easier to get than a parking space," Sawyer said. "I don't think the freedom that college permits is the first time you should be tasting alcohol."
