A new bill in the Maryland State Senate may change the underage drinking laws in Maryland, but will probably not affect AU directly.
The bill, which is part of a package of bills designed to crack down on underage drinking, would make it illegal for anyone under 21 to consume alcohol in Maryland. Currently, it is only illegal for underage people to be in possession of alcohol.
At the moment, AU does not issue Judicial Affairs and Mediation Services charges to intoxicated people on campus, including those that are underage. A change in nearby Maryland's law would not affect this policy, according to AU Public Safety Chief Michael McNair. It would be difficult to enforce such a policy, he said.
"There is no way to tell if a person has been drinking unless you perform a breath test," McNair said.
At the moment, D.C. law only requires mandatory breath tests if the person has been involved in an accident.
"I just don't see it as being very useful," he said.
McNair said he also does not believe that the bill, if passed, would be a helpful change in the underage drinking policy since it would be impractical.
"Without the alcohol, how would you know what [the underage people] consumed?" he asked.
Dan Principato, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, said he believes AU would not change its alcohol policy if the bill passes, but that the precedent set by Maryland may prompt the District of Columbia to change its underage drinking laws to follow suit. This would require AU to change its policies, since universities are required to follow all state and federal law, according to Julie Mills, deputy director of AU's Student Advocacy Center.
However, Principato said he thinks that the intoxication policy would be too troublesome to be practical.
"[Resident directors] would have to be replaced with Public Safety writing up 95 percent of the people coming in on a Saturday night," he said.
Cash Nelson, a freshman in SPA, said he believes AU would not institute a stricter drinking policy.
"There's already too much resistance to American's drinking policies," he said.
Nelson and Principato both said they believed the Maryland bill is not a helpful step in fighting underage drinking. Nelson said he thinks the law attacks the wrong people. Rather than punishing the users, the government should be focusing on the distributors of alcohol, he said.
Nelson and Principato both said they would not change their drinking habits in the face of a new underage intoxication policy.
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, D, sponsored the package of bills that are currently in the Senate. As of press time, it was still in committee.
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