For the first time in my life, and hopefully the last, I am severely disappointed in our university president, Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III.

I have nothing but the greatest esteem and admiration for Dr. Hrabowski. However, I disagree strongly with his rejection of the Amethyst Initiative, which was detailed in last week's edition of The Retriever Weekly.

I recognize that Dr. Hrabowski is much older than I am, and as an educator and a university president, he has wisdom and experience that I will not be able to match for many, many years. However, with that caveat, I respectfully disagree with the belief that the drinking age in the United States should remain at 21. I believe that it should be lowered to 18.

Because this article is for the Foreign Desk, I will approach my argument from the perspective of an American observing Australia's youth and drinking culture. However, I am not attempting to make the arrogant assertion that Australia does it better simply because it is a foreign country, and that everything the United States does is wrong.

Make no mistake about it, Australian university students drink as much as American college students do. They have parties in their dorm rooms and apartments just as Americans do, and play drinking games and sing drinking songs, though they sing extremely rowdy Australian drinking songs. The only broad difference in drinking habits between Australian university students as a whole and underage American university students as a whole, is that Australian students have the option of ordering alcoholic beverages in restaurants, and may go to bars and liquor stores legally, with their real IDs.

Another key difference: alcohol is a regular component of university events. Because so many students are underage, American universities are highly restricted in their ability to make alcohol available to students at school functions. I have attended school-sponsored parties at the University of Sydney where vouchers for free beer were handed out. Combine that with free pizza, a surfing simulator, four floors of DJs and live music, and tons of publicity, and you've got yourself a fun party for the whole university to enjoy. All of this is hosted in a campus setting that provides a stringent security checkpoint, a coat check, and campus security to evict obnoxious and potentially dangerous drunk students, and to keep strangers to the university out of the party.

(The only downside is that tickets to parties like this are expensive, but the price is worth it.) Overall, it's much safer for students, and they can still have a great time; a better time, even, than at many bars, because it's not filled with older strangers. Everyone is a peer and schoolmate.

I believe that normalizing alcohol for students and making it part of campus life only does positive things for students. It eliminates the forbidden aspect of consuming alcohol, and turns it into a normal thing that many adults do when they are socializing. From a practical standpoint, students will drink anyway. American universities might as well use that to their advantage. If the drinking age in the United States were lowered to 18, universities would be able to serve alcohol at student events. This would benefit the school in many ways. The availability of alcohol would encourage a higher turnout to campus events and make them more fun. This would boost school pride and foster a stronger sense of community, and would ultimately improve the university's reputation. All of these outcomes improve the number of applicants, raise retention rates and would eventually lead to an increase in alumni donations.

I do recognize that a major concern for university administrators across the country is that many students engage in dangerous drinking behaviors that can lead to injury or death. However, serving alcohol at university-sponsored functions would bring students out of their dormitories and apartments and into a setting where help could be sought immediately and without fear of legal repercussions in the event that a student were to drink too much too quickly, or perhaps suffer an injury. Furthermore, the unobtrusive supervisory atmosphere would prevent many students from drinking too much in the first place.

I also believe that lowering the drinking age to 18 would help foster a sense of responsibility in young people sooner. Personally, I am only truly learning how to consume alcohol responsibly now that I am in a setting where I may do so legally. Alcohol has been normalized for me. I have been known to pour myself a glass of red wine to go with my pasta or Easy Mac (I find great humor in that combination), or to even have wine with my favorite cheese, brie, as an evening snack.

When I go to Trivia Night at a local bar with my friends on Wednesday nights, I have one Corona and we split a bowl of chips. When I go to fancier bars, I have one Cosmopolitan or one Long Island Iced Tea and choose to stay sharp. It is wonderful to realize the Australian government believes I am mature enough, at 20 years old, to consume alcohol. It makes me feel like my adulthood has been validated and recognized. The Australian government does not treat me like a child, and that has encouraged me to grow a little more.

I believe that currently, the United States government (or more accurately, the governments of each of the 50 states) treats 18-to-20-year-olds like children, and rather unfairly. This does little to protect anyone.

I have seen through my own experience that when expectations are raised, the people who are objects of those expectations will rise to the occasion. If the government raises the bar for 18-to-20-year-olds and entrusts them to drink alcohol responsibly, I believe that American college students as a whole will develop safer drinking habits.

Have a little faith in us, Dr. Hrabowski. You already have great faith in our potential academically and have great pride in the students of UMBC for an abundance of reasons. You believe we can become responsible citizens of the world. Why not place a little more faith in us?