Collegiate Times

Alcohol policy and neighborhood relations were at the forefront of the Forum on Alcohol-Influenced Behavior, which took place yesterday evening at the Blacksburg Municipal Building. Recently appointed vice president of student affairs Ed Spencer, along with Deputy Town Manager for Blacksburg Steve Ross led the evening's discussion.

Other members of the panel included assistant police chief Tom Foster; Sgt. Nathan O'Dell of the Blacksburg Police Department; Director for Tech's Alcohol Abuse Prevention Center Steven Clarke; Byron Hughes from Tech's Judicial Affairs; Town of Blacksburg Housing and Neighborhood Services Manager Matt Hanratty; Town of Blacksburg Director of Planning and Building Anne McClung; Katherine Lloyd of Tech's Residence Life; and Steve Baffuto of Virginia ABC.

At the forefront of discussion was the drinking policy of both Virginia Tech and Blacksburg. A lively discourse began when Virginia Tech Students for Sensible Drug Policy president Kristopher Reinertson asked the panel about the Amethyst Initiative, a petition signed by over 130 college presidents to reopen the discussion on the legal drinking age. Tech officials were less than positive about the initiative. One major reason was the safety risks of having a lower drinking age.

"There has been a reduction in the number of fatalities for people age 16 to 21 since the increase to the drinking age," Foster said. Foster also expressed concern for a trickle-down effect to high schoolers should the drinking age be lowered to 18.

"There's a very large number of eighteen-year olds that are in high school, that when the age is lowered, have access to alcohol," Foster said. "Their peer groups, of course, are 17, 16, 15, and 14 years old."

However, officials such as Spencer noted the vast changes in the drinking culture from past years to now.

"I regret that the kind of experience in respect to alcohol that students have today is so different from what many of us had when we were in college," Spencer said. "The drinking age was 18, and it was a natural part of the environment, and we drank pretty responsibly."

 Spencer noted the casual and relaxed nature of drinking during his college days.

"We even had at my fraternity house deans come over for wine socials on Friday afternoons," Spencer said. "Can you imagine that today?"

That said, Spencer was pessimistic about the possibilities to change the legal drinking age back to 18.

"I think changing it back is going to be a real challenge. Doing so in many ways is sort of like fighting against motherhood and apple pie at this point," Spencer said.

Clarke pointed out that a change in behavior would be necessary for the discussion to gain weight.

"Laws don't change behavior, but behavior can change laws, so if the drinking and driving decreases, the number of at-risk drinkers decrease, they'd probably be much more agreeable to change those laws," Clarke said. "Maybe the age increase are the cause of some problems, but I'm not at all convinced that lowering the age will ameliorate these problems."

Also pointed out was a need for personal responsibility for those in the university community to reach out to Blacksburg residents. Blacksburg town officials stressed the importance for off campus students to build relationships with neighbors.

"A lot of the times residents can get frustrated over the years, they've lived here a long time, and they're tired of reaching out," Ross said. "Having a hand coming from the students can go a long way a lot of the times. And to really mean it when you look them in the eye and shake their hand, and actually follow through with that, you'll gain a lot of trust and respect from the residents."

Ross noted that trust was not something to be easily gained.

"It's difficult at first to build, to gain their trust, but if you do that it will go a long way to building a relationship in the neighborhood," Ross added.