The problem of excessive drinking at college and universities nationwide raises at least a few questions:

Are underage students drinking excessively because it is prohibited? Would lowering, or raising, the age lead to more responsible drinking?

Has penalizing states with a 10 percent reduction in annual federal-highway appropriation if they do not maintain a drinking age of 21 stifled the debate about the drinking age?

College and university presidents and chancellors are debating those issues as part of the Amethyst Initiative. They have signed their names to a public statement that says the problem of irresponsible drinking by young people continues, despite the drinking age of 21; and that a dangerous culture of binge drinking exists on many campuses.

The Amethyst Initiative, launched last year, is a project of Choose Responsibility founder John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College, in Middlebury, Vt.

The Initiative does not advocate a specific drinking age, and those who believe the age should be raised from 21 may sign. Signers support informed debate on the drinking age and are asking elected officials to weigh the consequences of current alcohol policies and invite new ideas about how best to help young adults make responsible decisions about alcohol.

A total of 135 presidents and chancellors have signed the public statement, including those from Duke, Johns Hopkins and Tufts universities, as well as Smith College and the University of Massachusetts. Only one from Maine -- President Leonard Tyler of Maine Maritime Academy -- has signed.

Tyler said Thursday that he signed because he thinks there has been a lack of discussion about college drinking, not because he thinks the drinking age should be lowered to 18.

"My reason for signing on to it was, 'Let's have an open and frank discussion about it,' " Tyler said. "Obviously, 18 didn't work, and I'm not sure 21 works; and what is the age? I don't know."

Drinking and drugs are frowned upon at Maine Maritime, and the college tests randomly for substances because students use boats and are involved in the shipping industry and other activities, Tyler said.

"We have a very, very stringent alcohol policy. Three strikes and you're out," he said.

Colby College President William Adams said he has not signed, because he does not believe that changing the drinking age will change substantially what concerns college officials most: abusive behavior involving alcohol.

Colby is investigating an April 12 incident in which the involvement of alcohol resulted in the arrests of two students.

Adams said he has studied the Amethyst Initiative carefully, knows McCardell well and has discussed it with him, but also that he disagrees with him. While the initiative does not say specifically that the primary motive is to change the drinking age, Adams believes that those who support it want to move in that direction.

McCardell said he believes Tyler, of Maine Maritime, has the right idea.

"If you read the Amethyst statement, it doesn't say the age should be lowered; it simply says we need to have frank and honest discussion about how well we are served by laws on the books," McCardell said. "In my view, the change that needs to come is not to lower the age, but change the rule of the 10 percent penalty."

The federal government has no authority to set a national drinking age, yet there is a catch if it is set below the age of 21, he said. States are forced to keep it at 21 if they want to get full highway funding.

"We have de facto a national drinking age, and what I think is of concern to Amethyst is, this 10 percent condition has been a very effective obstacle to any debate," McCardell said.

While supporters of the drinking-age law, passed in 1984, say it has led to a decrease in highway deaths, McCardell said that is not the case. Highway deaths have declined, but that trend started in 1982 -- two years before the law changed, he said. Some college presidents apparently believe otherwise, however.

University of Maine at Farmington President Theodora Kalikow also has not signed the statement.

"I did not think that what they were proposing was a good idea," she said. "National data from Harvard University's School of Public Health shows that the 21-year drinking age has led to fewer drunken-driving fatalities."

She said UMF has a comprehensive program of alcohol policies and education that is proving to be effective in decreasing the number of cases of campus drinking, arrests and alcohol poisoning that requires hospitalization.

Unity College also has not signed. Gary Zane, dean of student affairs, said data collected since the drinking age was raised show a clear reduction in alcohol-related deaths, and no statistics show that lowering the drinking age will result in less harmful behavior of any type.

About 1,700 college students die each year from alcohol use, and data have shown a strong link between college alcohol use, personal injuries and sexual assaults, he said.

"The solution to the alcohol problem on college campuses will not be achieved by lowering the drinking age," Zane said.

The solution, he said, rests with a comprehensive effort that includes providing accurate data, education, healthful alternatives, adequate counseling and consistent enforcement of campus policies; and trying to change a culture in which alcohol companies glamorize alcohol use by young adults.

Bowdoin College President Barry Mills in August issued a statement about why he did not join the Amethyst Initiative -- a position Scott Hood, the college's vice president of communications and public affairs, said has not changed.

Mills statement says he understands the arguments and agrees with many points raised about underage drinking on college campuses, but believes the conversation and debate about an appropriate drinking age needs to be much broader.

"This is an important and complex issue," the statement says, "but it goes well beyond the gates of America's college and university campuses, since many young people who would be affected by a change in America's drinking laws are not in college."

Staff writer Betty Jespersen contributed to this report.