Paul Chabot debates drug policy

Paul Chabot, SigEp, veteran, and recent candidate for the California State Assembly, engages in a debate on Drug policy on the John Stossel Show (Fox News).

(n.b. S&P does not endorse nor oppose the positions taken in the video. We just want to show SigEps "in the world" who are engaged in standing up for their opinions.)

Steve Hofstetter talks about Sigma Phi Epsilon

It's pretty neat when an up-and-coming entertainer is so open about his fraternity experience. This video shows comedian and hard-core SigEp Steve Hofstetter in interviews and directly talking about being a SigEp.

Bigger, Better, Best?

Cloak and dagger time, for real...

We received a copy of a rather pointed exchange between two people who are well known to the brotherhood. The substance revolves around the year-end report that was recently released. There is a fundamental disagreement over the strategic direction of the Fraternity. Do we build Chapter Quality by increasing Manpower, or do we build manpower by increasing Chapter Quality?

We are not going to identify the author of these statements, but since we got the information third-hand (at least) we see no reason not to publish them. The excerpts that follow convey the substance of the longer e-mail message

"[...]I'm out here trying to provide a great fraternity experience for young men[...] and the only thing we hear from Richmond is manpower. I would rather have a quality 75 man chapter than a 100 man chapter with 25 deadbeats tearing down the morale of the other 75. That's not the message we get from Richmond...100 men is better than 75 men."

"[...]when I reported that "YYYY Omega" was selected as chapter of the year I heard from one HQ staffer the next day asking "when can we expect them to be over 100 men?" There seems to be this mystical number of 100 that in some minds justifies that a chapter is good or bad if they exceed this number."
[...]
"When I speak with Greek Life professionals and talk of the national organization I get the comment that ... "oh SigEp is just about numbers." I'm on a committee at "XXXX University" interviewing candidates to fill the vacant IFC advisor position and the topic of numbers came up again Sunday night during an interview. My fraternity has the reputation among Greek life professionals that numbers are the most important thing....not the undergraduate experience....that hurts."
[...]
"I understand that next year the NLC (and Staff) wants to reduce the number of CLAs available for our chapters and make the cost of additional members to attend to be so much we can't afford to send beyond the minimum."
[...]
"Last Spring my AVCs were able to send a total of 18 men to CLA from "XXXX" and 9 from "YYYY". These guys came back to the chapter and made changes to improve their chapters. It pays off.....both "XXXX Omega" and "YYYY Omega" were chapter of the year on their campus. Take away the ability for me to send young future leaders to CLA to see the big picture and my chapters will suffer."
[...]
"We celebrate and note the chapters who have big numbers but where is the celebration for being the best on their campus? I reported to HQ both "XXXX Omega" and "YYYY Omega" as winning the most outstanding fraternity honor this year on their campus. Did either chapter get a letter from the national organization about their accomplishment? Is there a place on the national website where I can see the chapters who excelled on their campuses? Are we even collecting that information? Many of us have resorted to reporting this information to the Blog because that is the only celebration of brotherhood outlet we have."

What is obvious to this spectator is that longtime volunteers and Headquarters often find they are at odds with each other. I doubt that comes as a "newsflash" to anyone who has ever worked for the fraternity in either a paid or volunteer capacity. The fact that this man, even as frustrated as he is, continues to tilt at the windmills and encourages the men he works with to do their best for the Principals - and succeeds at it - is little short of a miracle. He and the men like him at all our chapters are the men that will show the next generation how to make a virtuous, diligent, and loving transition into adulthood. With any luck they will be prepared to make choices that will leave this world, if not a better place, at least less worse off than they found it.

We need to have the debates. We need to argue and get mad and struggle through it anyway because what we believe in is worth it. Do we want to be the best fraternity because we are the biggest? Or the biggest because we are the best? It seems fundamentally like a "Heart vs. Head" question.

In the Fight Over Piracy, a Rare Stand for Privacy

The University of Oregon takes a stand for student privacy rights. Way to go!

The record industry got a surprise when it subpoenaed the University of Oregon in September, asking it to identify 17 students who had made available songs from Journey, the Cars, Dire Straits, Sting and Madonna on a file-sharing network.

The surprise was not that 20-year-olds listen to Sting. It was that the university fought back.

Represented by the state’s attorney general, Hardy Myers, the university filed a blistering motion to quash the subpoena, accusing the industry of misleading the judge, violating student privacy laws and engaging in questionable investigative practices. Cary Sherman, the president of the Recording Industry Association of America, said the industry had seen “a lot of crazy stuff” filed in response to its lawsuits and subpoenas. “But coming from the office of an attorney general of a state?” Mr. Sherman asked, incredulous. “We found it really surprising and disappointing.”

The article goes on to note that while stealing music is indeed wrong, so are the strongarm, and extra-legal, tactics of the RIAA that tries to intimidate and bully institutions like U of Oregon into releasing private information.

“Certainly it is appropriate for victims of copyright infringement to lawfully pursue statutory remedies,” Mr. Myers wrote last month. “However, that pursuit must be tempered by basic notions of privacy and due process.”

“The larger issue,” Mr. Myers said, “is whether plaintiffs’ investigative and litigation strategies are appropriate.”

In the Fight Over Piracy, a Rare Stand for Privacy - New York Times

Babson Sig Ep Works for Autism Research

All for Paul
Three quadruplets champion autism research out of love for the fourth
By Bella English - Boston Globe

The Morris quadruplets are now 20. From left: Paul, Jesse, Sabrina, and Tyler in their Weston, Conn., home. (Jennifer S. Altman for the Boston Globe)

WESTON, Conn. - It's a brisk autumn morning, and Jesse Morris has been at it since 5 the evening before: flipping burgers, dragging couches outdoors, setting up plasma TVs and online video games, checking the supply of free food and live music, shaking down passersby for donations.

A junior at Babson College, Jesse is vice president of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, which recently held a 24-hour fund-raiser to support autism research. It raised nearly $3,000 - not bad for a quickie campus campaign. At Philadelphia University, Jesse's sister Sabrina is in the thick of planning an autism fair, and at the University of Richmond, brother Tyler has been working all semester with autistic children. In the past six years, the Morris family has raised $100,000 for autism research in an annual pledge walk.

Jesse, Sabrina, and Tyler are three of the Morris quadruplets, the first in vitro quads born in New York State. The fourth quad, Paul, is at the center of their efforts, and his siblings describe him as "the heart of our family" and "the glue that holds our family together."

Paul is autistic.

The Morris quadruplets, now 20, were born Aug. 16, 1987, at North Shore University Hospital on Long Island. Robin Morris was 37 when she gave birth to four babies, each a minute apart. Husband Dan was 38.

First came Sabrina, then Jesse, then Tyler, and finally Paul. Born at 31 weeks, they weighed less than 2.5 pounds each. At six months, Paul, who had a cyst in his chest, went into cardiac arrest and lost oxygen for more than 20 minutes before being resuscitated. Doctors then removed most of his right lung.

Robin and Dan Morris hoped that was the worst of it. But as Paul grew, he didn't seem to hear. His language was delayed. Finally, the diagnosis: atypical developmental disorder. Autism.
It is one of the worst words a parent can hear. "I was going, 'Not the A-word, not the A-word,' " says Robin, who writes a thrice-weekly blog - called "The A Word" - on the disorder for the online site revolutionhealth.com. Autism is a brain disorder that can impair social interaction, cognition, and communication.

While his siblings grew into active, articulate children, Paul did not start speaking until age 6. But he's chatty now. "He's making up for lost time," says Jesse, sitting in the living room of the southwestern Connecticut home with his sister, brothers, and parents. They've all come home for Thanksgiving: Jesse from Babson, Tyler from Richmond, Sabrina from Philadelphia, and Paul from the College Internship Program, a private school in the Berkshires for young people who have learning and social disabilities.

Indeed, Paul doesn't need anyone to speak for him. Unlike many with autism, he's both verbal and affectionate. "I have high-functioning autism," he declares. "At my school, there's a lot of Asperger's. I'm the only autistic kid at school." Asperger's syndrome is a milder form of autism.

He's cuddled on the couch with Sabrina, who is petite. He wraps his arms around her. He is free with hugs and kisses for his brothers and his parents, too. As Robin puts it: "Autism is a disorder of extremes - either hugging too much or hugging too little; talking too much or talking too little."

Fiercely protective

The quads have always been close, with the three fiercely protective of Paul. During a high school play rehearsal, Sabrina says she "went ballistic" when classmates mimicked Paul behind his back. She has chewed out people who casually use the word "retarded" and once lectured a guy at a bar who whined that he looked "autistic" in his fake ID photo.

Jesse plays the role of Paul's older brother, trying to teach him various things such as how to talk - or not talk - to people. In a crowd, it's Tyler who will keep an eye on Paul, Tyler who worries most, says their mother. At home, the siblings take Paul on their own social outings when they can, though often it's not possible. Paul's behavior can be - often is - odd.
"One of the things with this disorder is that all social rules have to be taught," says Robin. If Paul is "inappropriate" with her friends - talking incessantly, for example - Sabrina will tell him to stop, and he does.

Paul interrupts: "Like, the H-word is not appropriate, for example." As he launches into an explanation of "hell," his mother says sharply: "Paul, cut it short now! Paul, look at me!" At another point, she chides: "Excuse me, Paul, you're interrupting." Each time, Paul stops.
Sometimes, autistic people have surreal gifts: memorizing numbers or lists. Paul is a sports fanatic and can name every Heisman Trophy winner, with the year. He's also a film buff and knows every Oscar-winning picture, actor, and actress since the awards began in 1929. He has a special fondness for James Cagney.

" 'High Noon,' 1952, with Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper is a great movie," he says.
"But who won best picture that year?" asks his dad.

The immediate reply: " 'The Greatest Show on Earth,' with Charlton Heston."
Paul is also a directional savant, a walking GPS. Once, when his father got stuck in gridlock on the Merritt Parkway, Paul directed him home via a labyrinth of back roads. "He saved me over an hour," Dan says.

One for all

Jesse considers himself the older brother to all three of his siblings, not just Paul. The other three repeated kindergarten - they were preemies with a late summer birthday. The teacher said that Jesse, however, was ready for first grade. So throughout school, he has paved the way for the others, warning them about tough teachers, counseling them on their college applications. While he's now a college junior, they're sophomores.

During his senior year in high school, when he was interviewed by a Tufts track coach, Jesse's entire family was invited into the office. The coach asked the time-honored question: "Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?" Jesse looked at Paul and then back at the coach: "I don't know exactly where I'll be, but I know it will be close to my brother."

Indeed, Jesse, who is majoring in entrepreneurship at Babson, says he would never take a job outside the Northeast because of Paul. "I just hope he can live by himself one day. That's the goal. But if not, I want to help take care of him. I want to get a good job and be able to pay for him."

Tyler, who is a teaching assistant at a school for the autistic in Richmond, says he'll be the first to volunteer to take Paul in. "I think I'm a more compassionate person because of Paul," he says. In a paper he wrote in high school, Tyler credits Paul with teaching him everyday courage.
Sabrina says she could see Paul living with her when their parents are no longer around. "I would never, ever marry someone who didn't respect Paul, and he'd have to let him live with us if anything should happen." Paul kisses her cheek. Robin wipes her eyes. Dan says softly: "We don't want to put that on them. We want him to be independent."

Naturally, things aren't always warm and fuzzy among the four. Robin, a former soap opera actress, and Dan, a stockbroker, say they've worked hard to treat all their children equally. "We needed to have the rules apply to everyone," Robin says. "The others couldn't resent Paul, because he had to comply. We didn't make him the poor, pathetic autistic kid."

Unexpected visitor

There are times when his siblings have been angry at, or embarrassed by, Paul, who often interrupts. And when he calls them on the phone, it's a one-way monologue: He talks the entire time. "It frustrates them," Robin says. "They get mad at him just like they do each other. If he's too loud, they tell him to be quiet, just like they do each other."

In November, Paul called Jesse and told him he wanted to visit him at Babson the next morning. But Jesse told him not to come, he had to work; he travels from store to store in the Boston area doing marketing for Adidas. He was in his car on his way to work the next morning when his cellphone rang. "I love you so much, and I'm in your dining hall," Paul told him.

Jesse turned his car around and found his brother in the cafeteria wearing a big smile and a Babson cap. Jesse himself wasn't so happy. "My initial reaction was anger, because I told him I wasn't going to be there. I turned around and went back, and I was late for work." He adds quickly: "I think it was a misunderstanding."

Paul says: "I surprised him. I missed him. I wanted to see him. I wanted to see Babson. I take the bus from [school] and transfer in Springfield, Mass. I love being with him a lot." The three boys have always shared a room; when they're all at home, they still do, sleeping in two sets of bunk beds. The house is large; they could spread out but have chosen not to.

There's a definite family resemblance: those four dark heads together - though the four sets of eyes are four different colors. There's space on both ends of the couch, but the quads squish together. "I think maybe that's from being a multiple," their mother says.

And then they launch into a song - they all love to sing, and Paul especially knows all of his father's favorite hits from the '50s and '60s. This time, it's "I Wonder Why" by Dion and the Belmonts.

The chorus goes: "I wonder why / I love you like I do / Is it because I think you love me too . . ." Their voices are sweet; Paul croons the loudest. Their parents smile.

Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company

Awareness raised and bodies rocked

University of Maine Sig Eps held the sixth annual "Rock against Rape" concert. The usual political suspects showed up in between several band sets to help raise awareness and lend their support to a worthy cause.

On Saturday night, congressional representative Mike Michaud kicked off the evening by thanking everyone involved. He asserted the importance of the event and said, "It takes more than money ... it takes awareness." Michaud mingled with the students, giving firm handshakes, listening keenly and showing a moderate interest before the real show began
[...]
Taking the stage next was congressional representative Tom Allen with his wife Diana. They both echoed Michaud's request for awareness and transparency in regards to sexual assaults. Mrs. Allen explained her ambivalent feelings when she worked for the sexual assault hotline. She "felt a dread" whenever the phone rang but was glad she could be there for support.
[...]
Overall, the Sig Ep-endorsed Rock Against Rape, with a combination of political figures and entertaining musical groups was successful in raising awareness for sexual assault.

Congratulations on a continuing - and sadly continuously needed - committment to raising awareness.

Awareness raised and bodies rocked - Style

YouthAIDS benefit brings hip-hop music to campus - Front Page

D.J. $crilla helped Pittsburg State (KS) Sig Eps raise Money for YouthAids.

Media Credit: Raymond Hillegas DJ $crilla, recording artist and Sigma Phi Epsilon alumnus from Ohio, raps during the YouthAids Benefit Concert last Friday evening at Gorilla Village. Sigma Phi Epsilon's national chapter donated $3 for every dollar that was raised through ticket sales at the concert.

Recording artist and Sigma Phi Epsilon alumnus D.J. $crilla says he is always happy to take part in causes, so when the opportunity came up to do a YouthAids benefit concert held by the fraternity, he didn't think twice.

"Sigma Phi Epsilon's philanthropy is YouthAids," the rapper said. "Anytime I can get involved with charity, especially YouthAids, I'm all about it. Also, being a member of the fraternity doesn't hurt."

$crilla was the main act for Sigma Phi Epsilon's concert, held Friday, April 27, in the Gorilla Village. For every dollar raised through ticket sales, the fraternity's national chapter donated $3.

"It's extremely important for artists to get involved with the community because you have a voice," $crilla said. "There are so many people on this Earth that need our help, and as an artist I feel it's part of my duty to spread the knowledge to others to get involved in some way."

Pat Cribbs, Sigma Phi Epsilon's vice president of member development, says the expected.

"After we communicated with the artists, we pulled through and we put on a great production," Cribbs, junior in psychology education, said.

YouthAIDS benefit brings hip-hop music to campus - Front Page

Tulane Sig Eps Spearhead Effort to Inform Public about New Orleans Viability

Big Easy Go is a student-managed effort to complete a cross-country "parade" celebrating the rebirth of New Orleans. The convoy will be led by a New Orleans-themed golf cart and, if successful, will break the world record for longest golf cart drive.

MISSION

Take a souped-up golf cart, a rebuilt 1993 Lincoln Town Car limousine, a few dozen New Orleans-lovers and put them on the road from Los Angeles to New Orleans. What do you get? Big Easy Go, a different kind of pro-New Orleans campaign – a project as whimsical and seemingly impossible as the Big Easy itself.Our mission is simple: to encourage Americans and funhogs worldwide to return to New Orleans, a city eager – and ready – for tourists of all ages to come back.Our unlikely convoy will depart Los Angeles on May 20, 2007, led by our founder Gregory Thurnher (LA Alpha Alumnus) in his “Golf Car,” a revamped golf cart with a sixteen horsepower gas motor that began as his 2002 senior engineering project at Tulane University. We’re planning stops in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana during our two week-long journey. Along the way we plan to share our New Orleans experiences and encourage locals to come visit. . . we may even add some Southwesterners to our ranks and bring them along with us.Most of us are current, former and future New Orleans residents, many of us are Tulane University alumni and students, and all of us are ready to act as ambassadors for the city we love and cherish.If all goes as planned we will reach New Orleans on June 1, 2007, breaking the world record for longest golf cart drive. We are planning a party to celebrate our arrival and the revival of the city, with local music and food at Tulane University.The road to recovery since Hurricane Katrina has been long and hard for everyone on the Gulf Coast, and New Orleans still has progress to make. But the Crescent City is open for business and we want to spread the word. If our rag-tag convoy can make it to New Orleans, then anything is possible. And New Orleans can make it back, too.


Here's Brother Thurner's Personal Statement Regarding Big Easy Go!

Tulane University and the City of New Orleans are back, and fully functional in the eyes of our residents and visitors. Many areas previously plagued with storm related damage are completed restored. In some areas, economic incentives and federal assistance invigorated areas that were otherwise not desirable in their “Pre-Katrina” state. Despite these great strides, the nation sees a different picture of New Orleans.

Crime, violence, and economic failure are often the “tag lines” of New Orleans related conversations. Sadly, these topics are what capture the attention of our nation. The intent of OPERATION BIG EASY GO is to redirect the focus of the national media to the progress, the potential, and the promise of an amazing experience, available “only at Tulane, only in New Orleans.”

I moved to New Orleans August 24th, 1998. Learning, living, and growing at Tulane clearly defined what I now know as my “life.” I can’t imagine attending any other university, in any other city. Following my graduation from the School of Engineering, I accepted an offer from Entergy Services. This extended my stay in New Orleans an additional three years, accommodating my pursuit of an MBA from Tulane’s Freeman School of Business.

Mardi Gras Day, 2005, I received a phone call from my manager. I was selected to make a “developmental move” towards a management position within Entergy. I accepted the assignment, and relocated to The Woodlands, Texas. My management told me this would be a two year assignment, concluding with my return to New Orleans. I had no idea that this plan would be interrupted by one of the worst storms in our nation’s history.

Fortunately, as a Electric Distribution Engineer in The Woodlands, I volunteered to return to New Orleans to assist Entergy New Orleans in restoring critical electric service. I arrived in New Orleans four days after Katrina, and performed restoration work (varying from directing 65 man linemen crews to physically performing linemen duties) for approximately four weeks. Despite the rough conditions and seemingly endless workload, I was delighted to have a part in the initial recovery of New Orleans. My memories of the devastation remind me, each time that I return to New Orleans, how far we have truly come from “Ground Zero.”

Katrina spared me. I sold my home in New Orleans five months before it was inundated with water. My pursuits of the Tulane MBA lead me to a promotion within Entergy as a power marketer. I feel greatly indebted to my University and my City. My service in restoration efforts is trivial when compared to those who have “lived” the restoration every step of the way. I want those New Orleanians and Tulanians to know that their patience and dedication to New Orleans is worthwhile. To do so, positive press encouraging business, tourists, and students to return is vital!

As I prepare to graduate from Tulane for the second time this May, I am troubled when I think that others may forgo all of the benefits of a Tulane Education and a life in New Orleans based upon preconceived notions of New Orleans. For my Senior Engineering project, I took an antiquated golf cart through a “monster garage” redesign. This golf cart has been my chariot for many Mardi Gras, and is one of my most unique memories of Tulane and New Orleans. To me, the golf cart represents all that is Tulane and all that is New Orleans; a fantastic, entertaining place to explore your intellectual pursuits, where your opportunities and resources are only constrained by your ambition and imagination. I have designed Operation BIG EASY GO to mirror my journey from childhood, to my post college, post Katrina years in New Orleans.

Operation BIG EASY GO will begin when I leave my childhood home in Los Angeles, California at the wheel of the golf cart. I will continue through Scottsdale, Arizona (where I attended high school,) Houston, Texas, (my current residence) commencing in New Orleans. This operation will take two weeks, and will include strategically placed stops along the way. At each stop, we will rally with our alumni and supporters, and remind the nation of the “flavor” that is only in New Orleans. Each stop, each interview, each article, will convey the resounding message that New Orleans and Tulane are viable. Tulane and New Orleans still offer an experience that is unique, and globally recognized. Tulane and New Orleans invite you to come back. It is expected that my journey will be accompanied by current Tulane students in more “traditional” modes of transportation. The operation will begin after Tulane Graduation, May 19th, 2007.

Please consider making a financial contribution to this worthy cause. All proceeds will be donated to Tulane University.

Please direct all inquiries for information to:
Gregory Thurnher, ME ’02, MBA 07
gthurnhe@tulane.edu

Fund Big Easy Go:

Big Easy Go needs your help! To keep this endeavor affordable, on a student budget, you can donate to Big Easy Go via Paypal (see website). Big EG Inc, doing business as Big Easy Go, is a non-profit corporation. All proceeds of our trip will be donated to Tulane University.

Advertise Big Easy Go:

The Big Easy Go wants to showcase your products and or logo! In exchange for a negotiable donation, The Big Easy Go can adorn your logo on any of our vehicles, wear any of your logo adorned clothing, or distribute any of your products. Imagine your product / service / company sharing all of the publicity that will inherently follow the Big Easy Go!

E-mail: ads@bigeasygo.com for more information.

Ride Big Easy Go:

Tired of the same old summer vacation? Take it easy with the Big Easy Go. The Big Easy Go can accommodate individuals who wish to “ride” with our Krewe. Patrons can choose the duration of their ride. E-mail: ride@bigeasygo.com for more information.

House Big Easy Go:

Do you own or operate a hotel, dorm, or other building or home that could house the Big Easy Go? Each day of our journey will last between eight and sixteen hours. Following each day, we would greatly appreciate any opportunity to “rest up” before our subsequent day’s journey. Email: logistics@bigeasygo.com for more information.

Feed Big Easy Go:

Do you own or operate a restaurant along our route. The Big Easy Go will travel with a hungry group of students and enthusiasts. We will graciously accept anything you can offer, in exchange for all of the excitement, publicity, and goodwill that is inherent with the Big Easy Go. Email: logistics@bigeasygo.com for more information.

Iowa State Greeks Take on Sexual Assault

Iowa State U. Greek men ‘Walk a Mile in Her Shoes’
By Josh Hillman

Iowa State University's sorority circle will become a catwalk Thursday night, as fraternity men plan to don high heels to raise awareness of sexual assault issues.

The Interfraternity Council is sponsoring "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes," an event that asks fraternity members to walk one mile in women's shoes as a lighthearted segue into a discussion of sexual assault in the community.

The event is set for 5:30 p.m. at the intersection of Sunset Drive and Gray Avenue.

Following the walk, Angie Schreck, sexual assault services coordinator for Assault Care Center Extending Shelter and Support, will give a speech addressing sexual assault awareness.

Brad White, vice president for community service and philanthropy for IFC and sophomore in pre-business, said he hopes to have 50 to 100 people attend.

One of his major concerns at this point, however, is making sure they have enough high heels for all the men."Right now, we're asking women of the greek community to be willing to loan some out for the day," White said.

"We're probably now making this an annual event, so I'll buy shoes for IFC to use for future years."

The event is in its second year, and White expects it to last no longer than an hour.

White believes the event is positive for the community."I think that it really gets the men of the greek community thinking about the issues. It's an uncomfortable issue obviously, and this is an easier way of talking about it," White said.

Schreck said events such as this are valuable not only to the community, but also to sexual assault victims. She hopes people learn messages of both prevention and response."[In regards to abuse] prevention, men look at why it takes place and how they can stand up against it," Schreck said.

For assaults that do happen, Schreck said it's vital for friends and confidants to know what to do."

That response -- that first person that the victim goes to -- is so important to how the victim recovers, views their assault," she said.

Schreck said her presentation will combine the lighthearted nature of the event with the gravity of sexual assault.

"I hope to mix the two together in the most appropriate way," she said.

Schreck hopes momentum for awareness events picks up in the community.

"We'd love to see other groups pick up ideas and do these kinds of activities," she said. "Anybody with the right information and the imagination or motivation can do
this."

An Honest Conversation About Alcohol

(This article has been passed around to several alumni group mailing lists. We got it and think it is worth reading and passing on.)

An Honest Conversation About Alcohol

by Scott Jaschik
/Inside Higher Ed/
February 16, 2007

---

Two months after he finished up as president of Middlebury College in 2004, John M. McCardell Jr. wrote a column for The New York Times called

"What Your College President Didn't Tell You." In the piece, he discussed how he was "as guilty as any of my colleagues [as presidents] of failing to take bold positions on public matters that merit serious debate." Taking advantage of his new emeritus status, he proceeded to take a few such positions. Among other things, he wrote that the 21-year-old drinking age is "bad social policy and terrible law," and that it was having a bad impact on both students and colleges.

His comments didn't surprise college presidents, many of whom boast about dry campuses or dry Greek systems that don't actually exist. But the prevailing attitude among college leaders about McCardell and his column was: "Easy for him to say now that he's retired - and he may well be right, but it's not like he could ever do something about this."

McCardell is about to try. With backing from the Robertson Foundation, he has created a nonprofit group, Choose Responsibility, that will seek to promote a national discussion of alternatives to the 21-year-old drinking age. The group is preparing a Web site with studies that challenge conventional wisdom about the advantages of the law, while explaining its flaws. The group will also push an idea - floated without success in the 1990s by Roderic Park, then chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder - to allow 18-20-year-olds who complete an alcohol education program to obtain "drinking licenses." And McCardell and others plan to start speaking out, writing more op-eds, and trying to redefine the issue.

The current law, McCardell said in an interview Thursday, is a failure that forces college freshmen to hide their drinking - while colleges must simultaneously pretend that they have fixed students' drinking problems and that students aren't drinking. McCardell also argued that the law, by making it impossible for a 19-year-old to enjoy two beers over pizza in a restaurant, leads those 19-year-olds to consume instead in closed dorm rooms and fraternity basements where 2 beers are more likely to turn into 10, and no responsible person may be around to offer help or to stop someone from drinking too much.

Any college president who thinks his or her campus has drinking under control is "delusional," McCardell said, although he acknowledged the political pressures that prevent most sitting presidents from providing an honest assessment of what's going on on their campuses. But he said that the dangers to students and institutions are great enough that it's time for someone to start speaking out. While he was president at Middlebury, one of his students died, a 21-year-old who was driving after drinking way too much.

Until the 1980s, states had a range of drinking ages, but a gradual upward push became a de facto federal policy in 1984 with the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which required states wanting their full allotment of highway funds to have a drinking age of 21. The states all complied. Since then, federal and state officials have largely hailed the law's impact, noting among other things notable declines in the number of teenagers killed in drunk driving accidents. At the same time, federal officials have also issued warning after warning about alcohol use by teenagers - many of them starting to drink at much younger ages than ever before.

After the Times ran his op-ed, McCardell said that he obtained a small grant from the Robertson Foundation that enabled him to hire some Middlebury students as assistants, and they started looking at available research. Their findings led the foundation to believe a larger campaign made sense - and it awarded McCardell $200,000 to start his new group, with the idea that he would also start to raise more money.

What was striking about the research, McCardell said, was how little of it conclusively backs up claims about the positive impact of the 21-year-old drinking age. "This is by definition a very emotional issue, but what we need is an informed and dispassionate debate," he said. He said that the major flaw in analyses to date has been false assumptions about causal relationships. If DWI accidents among teens have dropped, that must be because of the rise in the drinking age, proponents say.

But McCardell noted that a range of other factors could be at play, too - such as changing attitudes about seat belts, the availability of airbags, etc. At the same time, those who see a causal relationship in one set of statistics ignore others - showing continued drinking by college students (under 21) and substantial evidence of truly dangerous drinking by a subset of that population.

"Data are data," McCardell said. "Facts are stubborn things."

Why does he think the law should change? Under the current system, "family members are marginalized and disenfranchised," McCardell said. To try to teach responsible drinking could involve violating the law. And teens end up experimenting with alcohol "surreptitiously and recklessly."

Then these students land at colleges, creating "an impossible situation" for institutions, McCardell said. "You either become an arm of the law, which you are not about, or a haven from the law, which poses a fundamental ethical dilemma," he said. To the extent colleges have changed drinking patterns, they have not stopped drinking, but forced it off campus or underground. Students are then "much more vulnerable."

McCardell is well aware of the odds against changing the laws, but he said that so few members of the public have ever seen or thought about the evidence - and that change is possible with a sustained public campaign. As a former president, McCardell said that he can understand why a sitting president wouldn't want to take the lead on this issue, but he said he thinks some will join the effort if it can establish traction. "I hope to encourage them," he said.

Such a campaign will be welcomed in some quarters, but not others.

Henry Wechsler, who surveyed the drinking habits of thousands of college students for a series of projects at the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol study, called McCardell's approach "a poor idea." Wechsler said that 19-year-olds just don't drink responsibly so there is no reason for them to drink, period. "Nineteen-year-olds do not have two beers. When they drink, they drink a lot," he said. "What happens to 16- and 17-year-olds. Should they also be legal?"

Also skeptical is Drew Hunter, president of the Bacchus Network, a national group that helps colleges discourage alcohol abuse. Hunter acknowledged that the drinking age of 21 has not so much altered students' drinking habits as "pushed alcohol off campus," and that "students who want to go out and drink in large quantities are going to do so - regardless of the drinking age." He also said that McCardell was correct on the situation the law creates: "We're putting a large number of our students in a situation where they break the law on a steady basis."

But Hunter said he did believe that the drinking age has saved lives, especially those of teen drivers. He also said that his organization supports the current law and that he did not think McCardell would succeed. (One irony: Bacchus, the group favoring the 21-year-old drinking age, receives some financial support from the alcohol industry, and its board includes executives from Anheuser-Busch and Coors. McCardell said that his new group in its push to change the law will not take funds from the alcohol industry. "There will be every temptation, but we are not going to let ourselves be tarred in that way," he said.)

Other experts contest Hunter's view that the public will not be swayed on this issue. Michael P. Haines, director of the National Social Norms Research Center, at Northern Illinois University, said that while large majorities of Americans have reported being concerned about underage drinking, focus groups have found that this view is a nuanced one. When Americans say that they oppose underage drinking, they are thinking of high schools and middle schools, Haines said, not "a 19-year-old who is married and working full time, a 20-year-old in the military, or a 19-year-old in college."

Haines, whose group has argued that scare tactics about alcohol abuse fail to reach students, said he was pleased to learn of McCardell's new campaign. "I think the 21-year-old drinking age is a disastrous failure," he said. It has forced many colleges to avoid communication with students of the sort that might actually lead to healthier behavior, he said. "Many colleges are worried that if they talk about alcohol with their freshmen, they will be charged with condoning underage drinking," he said.

Honesty is badly needed if colleges are going to reach students, he said.

McCardell said he knows some will make fun of a former president for crusading on this issue, but he also spoke about the importance of honesty. "This is not about giving more beer to young people," he said. "This is about opening our eyes to the social reality around us."