Ordinance better than promises

By Lyndsay Harshman

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In America, morbidity and mortality rates increase 200 percent from early school age into late adolescence and early adulthood. This increase is not the result of cancer, cardiovascular decline, or infectious disease. Instead, the Centers for Disease Control attributes the increase to preventable causes, many related to alcohol, including motor vehicle accidents and suicide.

As a medical student at the University of Iowa and former undergraduate student, I support of the 21-only ordinance in Iowa City bars.

UI students binge drink at levels more than twice the national average with nearly 70 percent of our undergraduate students qualifying as binge drinkers. A 2007 report from the U.S. surgeon general, as well as yearly reports from the CDC, show that those younger than 21 are more likely to binge drink and require hospitalization.

UI data show blood-alcohol concentration for students referred for services at Health Iowa now range from 0.18 to 0.43 compared with 0.12 to 0.23 just five years ago.

Opponents of the 21-only ordinance express concern about the ordinance leading to more underage drinking at house parties and a lack of student safety there. On the surface, these seem to be valid concerns. Upon closer inspection, this argument lacks validity.

Other campuses in the Big Ten and Big 12, namely Wisconsin and Nebraska, have 21 policies that were as controversial as ours, yet no dramatic rise in off-campus accidents, alcohol intoxication at house parties, or off-campus violence was noted. Today, these campuses are vibrant examples of what Iowa City has potential to be: a provider of safe, respectable jobs for students, a focus of cultural engagement, as well as a center for greater civic advancement.

In fact, students and the greater Iowa City community are safer since the 21-only ordinance took effect three months ago. Data from the Iowa City Police Department show calls for service for sexual assaults, simple assault and assault causing injury all were down substantially during that period.

As I finish my final year of medical school and look back over the nearly nine years I have been a UI student, it is easy to recall the many times bar owners have promised to make changes downtown to promote the safety of our student population. However, only with the 21-only ordinance have we truly seen a safer community.

Please vote “no” Nov. 2 to maintain the 21-only bar ordinance in Iowa City.

Lyndsay Harshman of Iowa City is president, Executive Council of Graduate & Professional Students, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Class of 2011.