McRobbie has no plans to sign petition to lower drinking age, spokesman says

IU President Michael McRobbie is not among the more than 100 college and university leaders who have signed a petition that argues the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18, even though he thinks the drinking age should be lowered.

“In his native land in Australia, the age is 18, and it is his belief that that’s a reasonable age for consumption of alcohol,” said IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre.

But MacIntyre said McRobbie has no plans to sign the petition.

“President McRobbie has his personal views, and he also speaks for the University,” MacIntyre said. “And in this particular instance, his personal view does not totally mesh with the position the University has taken for quite some time.”

To change the University’s position, McRobbie would have to confer with IU Trustees, University deans and state officials.
“I don’t think that’s on his list of priorities right now,” MacIntyre said.

Purdue President France Cordova did not sign the petition either. But Butler President Bobby Fong, Hanover College President Susan DeWine and Holy Cross College President Richard Gilman signed the petition, called the Amethyst Initiative. Notre Dame declined to take a position.

The Amethyst Initiative began in June 2008 when President Emeritus of Middlebury College and founder of Choose Responsibility, an organization that encourages the discussion of 18 to 20 year-olds’ drinking habits, John McCardell spoke with other local college presidents about the issue of underage drinking.

The petition as is does not directly promote a policy change. But it does state that those who sign do not believe 21 works as a drinking age and its effects pose serious risks to young people.