Two of the north country's college presidents say the nation's alcohol policies — and its legal drinking age of 21 — deserve a second look. They're supported by many students and bartenders locally, but law enforcement officials have mixed feelings about whether people should be able to drink at a younger age.

Clarkson University President Anthony G. Collins and St. Lawrence University President Daniel F. Sullivan announced last week that they had signed the Amethyst Initiative, a movement designed to start a national discussion about the drinking age — and whether it should be lowered.

"I signed because I thought we ought to begin having a broader conversation about responsible drinking among people 18 to 21 years of age," Mr. Sullivan said.

He said he remembers when he was a professor and a member of a faculty softball team at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., in the early 1980s. He said the lower drinking age allowed him to set an example for students on how to drink responsibly.

"After a game, we could have a beer together, in a setting in which alcohol was used, but it was moderated greatly," he said. "One of the most frustrating things in higher education is that the law makes it hard for people like me — faculty or administrators — to be present when students are engaging in their social lives and serve as a model for drinking, as well as a mentor or chaperone."

Mr. Sullivan said that since 18- to 20-year-olds already are given the rights to vote, drive, serve on a jury and enlist in the military, it doesn't seem out of the question that they could be given permission to consume alcohol — something that could be revoked if it was abused.

"Clearly that age group is already showing enormous responsibility. Look at the presidential debate, climate change, poverty," Mr. Collins said. "There needs to be a clear understanding of the risks involved with alcohol consumption. But as we enforce the law, it makes it harder to educate, because we drive the issue behind closed doors and off campus."

Potsdam Village Police Chief John A. Kaplan said he's worried that lowering the drinking age would only create a larger population of people who hurt either themselves or others in alcohol-related incidents like drunken driving, fights or sexual assaults.

"The issue is complicated because simply lowering the drinking age might not be the best solution," he said. "Does that mean I'm not in favor of researching it? No. We clearly have a long, long way to go. The question is, what's the safest way to do it?"

People often point to fraternity and sorority houses as places where underage drinkers flock when they can't get into bars. That gives a certain reputation to people like the brothers of Zeta Nu, 27 Main St., Potsdam, who say they pay for the sins that many of their classmates, Greek or not, also commit.

"We have a whole wristband policy for parties. We follow that as best we can, which is really hard to do in a college town," said James A. Licata, 20, a ZN brother and a Clarkson junior. "If you look at European countries, drinking is not as big a deal to them. Here, drinking is a big deal for a lot of people, and they go wild and don't learn to manage themselves."

Canton Village Police Chief Alan P. Mulkin isn't ready to turn back the clock to the years when 18 was the legal drinking age just yet, but he is worried about underage drinkers who don't turn to his department for help when they need it because they're afraid of getting in trouble.

"I don't want any barriers for students in alcohol crisis to get the help they need," he said. "There's going to be a problem regardless of the age. I'm open to looking at any information that would indicate whether lowering the drinking age would be beneficial or not."

Jody C. Wenzel, owner of McDuff's Tavern in Potsdam, pointed to the same problem.

"If somebody underage gets too drunk at a party, 99 times out of 100, somebody is going to throw a blanket over them and wait until morning. If they're here, we're calling the rescue squad or the cops," he said. "Let's be honest. For the vast majority of college students, if they want to get drunk, they're going to. Especially here, where it's as easy as driving across the border."

The legal drinking age in Ontario is 19.

Joseph A. Tolliver, vice president for student affairs at SLU, said many underage students compensate for not being able to drink in bars or at parties by "pregaming" or "frontloading" — basically bingeing beforehand — in their rooms.

"How effective is the drinking age? I don't think it's effective at all. The focus should be on abuse, not use," he said. "Since 1980, I have either been a dean or an associate dean at various colleges. Never in the past have I had to deal with people getting alcohol poisoning and being transported to the hospital on their 21st birthday. We had three last year."

William G. "Chip" Morris, director of the office of student conduct and community standards at SUNY Potsdam, says today's college students aren't as irresponsible as most people think — but he also doesn't think the situation was so rosy when the previous generation could drink at 18.

"'Animal House' wasn't a glimpse of the future; it was a caricature of Greek life at the time," he said. "But we know that overwhelmingly, on any given night, our students are making responsible decisions. There's a certain percentage that are not, but they're a pretty small number."

Mr. Morris estimated that on an average night in Potsdam, out of the two colleges' 8,000 or so students, 400 of them are at downtown bars and another 400 are drinking in fraternity houses and off-campus apartments.

"Eight hundred out of 8,000? That's 10 percent, isn't it? So what are the other 90 percent doing? They're being pretty responsible, but we don't often think of it that way," he said. "Whenever people use the phrase 'binge drinking,' they're almost always talking about college students. But what about the 32-, 42- and 52-year-olds being arrested for drunk driving?"

He said SUNY Potsdam surveys show that the average student drinks once a week, but their perception is that other students drink three times that much.

"Hey, if the law changed, I'm not turning anybody away, but I'm not a big supporter of opening it up to 18-year-olds, because I don't want to deal with high schoolers in the bar," Mr. Wenzel said. "But there's a lot of time spent on prosecuting people for fake IDs and underage drinking. If you take that away, you ease up the burden on the judicial system and law enforcement to focus on bigger issues."