Last summer, chancellors and presidents of universities and colleges across the United States signed on to the Amethyst Initiative , a public statement that encourages schools to consider lowering the drinking age to address the fact that "the problem of irresponsible drinking by young people continues despite the minimum legal drinking age of 21, and there is a culture of dangerous binge drinking on many campuses."  

Despite recent efforts, the dangerous campus culture of binge drinking prevails :

A recent study has confirmed something university officials have been aware of for some time: Drinking among college students is on the rise.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism study showed the number of college students binge drinking between 1998 and 2005 rose from 42 percent to 45 percent. The number of alcohol-related deaths among 18-to-24-year olds rose to 1,825 from 1,440 during the same seven-year period.

At the University of Maryland, where University President Dan Mote and University System of Maryland Chancellor Brit Kirwan are both signatories of the Amethyst Initiative, their campus alcohol coalition understands that students reflect society at large, and as long as drinking is accepted and promoted, it's no wonder they'll just keep boozing. 

"National trends getting worse are quite concerning," Kelley said. "Our students aren't immune from the direction of society and culture, and if it continues to get worse, I suspect we'll see the evidence here as well."