Although several colleges have taken stances on it, NIU has not taken a position on whether or not the drinking age should be lowered.

A movement of college presidents and chancellors, including Duke University, Dartmouth College and Ohio State University, called the Amethyst Initiative has recently made headlines by calling for the drinking age to be lowered to 18.

Brian Hemphill, vice president of Student Affairs, said the issue of alcohol on college campuses is very complex.

“It’s difficult to believe that one solution will solve this particular problem,” Hemphill said.

Donna Schoenfeld, director of Health Enhancement, agreed with Hemphill that lowering the drinking age isn’t the solution.

“It would be premature to think that lowering the legal age of alcohol consumption would solve all the problems associated with alcohol misuse on a college campus,” Schoenfeld said.

According to the Amethyst Initiative’s Web site, “These higher education leaders have signed their names to a public statement that the 21-year-old drinking age is not working, and, specifically, that it has created a culture of dangerous binge drinking on their campus.”

As of today, 128 college presidents from around the country have signed the petition. Only three Illinois schools are on the list: Lake Forest College, Quincy University and Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Hemphill said NIU has been contacted by the initiative regarding the petition, but the university has not done so.

“We are reviewing their proposal in terms of their approach to address binge drinking,” Hemphill said.

NIU has done its own research on alcohol. Two years ago, Hemphill put together a task force to address alcohol and other drugs on campus.

“They made 10 recommendations to me in terms of looking at this issue for NIU,” Hemphill said. “None of them suggested that we lower the drinking age.”

Schoenfeld said a comprehensive approach was the primary outcome of the task force. One aspect was hiring a new health educator whose sole job was to approach students on a one-on-one basis.

Hemphill said he has mixed feelings regarding the Amethyst Initiative.

“The issue of binge drinking is very important for colleges and universities to look at around the nation,” Hemphill said. “I’m happy people and colleges are talking about it, but I don’t want it to be oversimplified by just lowering the drinking age. [The issue] is going to be more complex.”