09/11/08 - Although some universities are embracing the idea of a lower national drinking age, University of Rhode Island President Robert L. Carothers said URI will not be among them.

This summer, more than 100 university presidents signed an initiative in favor of lowering the legal drinking age from 21 to 18 years of age. The Amethyst Initiative, a campaign launched by a faculty member at Vermont's Middlebury College, garners support from them to promote alcohol use in moderation as opposed to the "clandestine" binge drinking usually responsible for campus tragedies.

He defends his decision with an armory of research-based facts, including statistics that show a decrease in drunk driving fatalities after the legal age was upped decades ago, and the knowledge that more than 90 percent of sexual assaults are alcohol-related.