GAMBIER — Kenyon College hosted a town hall meeting on underage consumption Wednesday night, allowing students and community members to ask questions of a gathered panel. The panel included representatives from several student organizations, as well as Mary Samuell of the Knox County Alcohol and Drug Freedom Center, Tom Stamp of the Gambier Village Council and Mount Vernon Municipal Court Judge Paul Spurgeon, among others.
Event coordinator Michelle Foster opened the event by asking prepared questions of the panel.
One topic raised came from Tammy Gocial, Kenyon Dean of Students, who asked the panelists about the Choosing Responsibility Program, an idea gaining national attention. The program would allow college students who took an alcohol education course to consume alcohol at age 18. Gocial called it a “license to drink.”
Spurgeon said the program “would give students the opportunity to learn how [to drink responsibly]” and that the idea was “something to check out.”
One Kenyon faculty member said the licensing idea “makes a lot of sense.” Mike Durham, Substance Abuse Counselor for Kenyon, said, “They can vote, marry, go to war. To say that they can’t choose to drink, I think it doesn’t fit.”
Mary Samuell of the Freedom Center disagreed.
“Half of the heavy drinkers on campus are going to be physically addicted to alcohol by the time they leave school,” said Samuell. “With the first drink [a person consumes,] the intellect is impaired. How can you be responsible when you’re in that state? It’s bad enough we send them to war when they’re 18. Why should we make it easier for them to poison themselves?”
Three Kenyon students on the panel agreed with the idea that although alcohol should be allowed at age 18, education on the subject should be mandatory.
One audience member, a Kenyon student born and raised in France, said, “I’ve been drinking for a while and I’ve never seen binge drinking like I have here. In France, I never saw a beer pong game or a beer bong. The problem in the states is that the legal age is 21 and people rebel against that. Regardless of education, you don’t know how you’re going to react [when you start drinking]. In France, the drinking age is 16, but the driving age is 18. The difference is they have that experience [with alcohol] before they drive.”
On local issues, Village Council President Tom Stamp said, “Often village residents have negative reactions to Kenyon students because their interactions with them are often when the students are inebriated. That is unfortunate.”
Spurgeon said certain occupations are more likely to encourage problems with alcohol.
“Eighteen to 20 percent of all lawyers are alcoholics,” he said. “That’s two times that of the general population. After 20 years of practice, that rate rises to 25 percent. That’s one in four becoming an alcoholic.”
Dr. William Jantsch said that none of the panelists really seemed to advocate prohibition.
“I think everyone has to make his or her own choice as to what responsible behavior is,” said Jantsch.
Foster said it was a good turnout for the event.
“I was excited to see so many Kenyon students. I think it was a very interesting conversation,” she said.
The event was sponsored by the Freedom Center in collaboration with a national campaign conducted by the U.S. Interagency Coordinating Committee for the Prevention of Underage Drinking.
