Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/educators-spark-dialogue-on-underage-drinking Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript A coalition of college and university presidents recently urged lawmakers to discuss making age 18 the legal limit for drinking as a means to curb alcohol abuse among students. Two university officials take up the controversial initiative that has sparked a national debate. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JUDY WOODRUFF: More than two decades after Congress required states to set the legal drinking age at 21, underage drinking remains a persistent nationwide problem.Research has shown that more than 1,000 college students die each year in alcohol-related traffic accidents.Government surveys have shown that 19 percent of young people between the ages of 12 and 20 years old are considered binge-drinkers, meaning they have more than four or five drinks during a single occasion.This week, a coalition of more than 100 presidents of colleges and universities — including Ohio State, Duke, Syracuse, and Maryland — signed a letter saying that one idea worth considering would be lowering the legal age to 18.Well, here to discuss it is S. Georgia Nugent. She's the president of Kenyon College, a liberal arts school in Ohio. She's a member of the coalition.And Joseph Califano, he's the president of the National Center on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. He was secretary of health, education, and welfare during the Carter administration.Thank you both for being with us.Georgia Nugent, to you first. Why are you and other college presidents saying the legal age should be reconsidered?