Apparently North Dakota college administrators are against a petition being circulated among America’s universities to start a public discussion about lowering the drinking age.

More than 100 university presidents and chancellors said this week they wanted to start a national debate about lowering the drinking age to 18 — but the heads of area universities are not among them.

UND President Robert Kelley, University of Minnesota-Crookston Chancellor Charles H. Casey and Mayville (N.D.) State University President Gary Hagen all said they were asked to sign a petition seeking public discussion of the issue but refused.

“Without research, I fail to see how making alcohol available to younger people is a good idea,” Hagen said. “I’m not convinced there’s research that validates a movement toward that. And I don’t think we should be making rules that would put alcohol in young people’s hands easier, especially without knowing all the facts.”

I think Hagen’s response here is, frankly, rather stupid.  The petition wasn’t to lower the drinking age, it was to start a discussion about lowering it.  If Hagen isn’t aware of any research that would support lowering the drinking age perhaps such a discussion would reveal it.

But apparently the close-minded Hagen and his fellow North Dakota higher education administrators aren’t interested in any new information.

As for research, I’m not sure what kind of research Mr. Hagen wants but it seems to me that if we can send 18 - 20 year-olds off to fight in war zones with missiles and machine guns and tanks we can trust them with a few beers down at the bar.  And yes, I’m aware that America’s universities have problems with too much alcohol consumption among students.  But maybe our college-aged citizens wouldn’t be so prone to such childish behavior if we didn’t coddle them like children with things like the drinking age.