A campaign to lower the legal drinking age to 18 has been joined by more than 100 college chiefs, including those of many well-known institutions. Dubbed the Amethyst Initiative, the effort is also generating a blitz of news-media coverage today.

John M. McCardell Jr., president emeritus of Middlebury College, is behind the campaign. As The Chronicle reported last year, Mr. McCardell founded Choose Responsibility, a nonprofit group that seeks to curb binge drinking by giving “drinking licenses” to 18- to 20-year-olds who have been educated about the downsides of alcohol.

The campaign began heating up in June, when Mr. McCardell spoke at a meeting of the Annapolis Group of liberal-arts colleges. Now presidents of major institutions such as the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland at College Park, and Ohio State University have signed a statement that seeks to “rethink the drinking age.” But not all college presidents are fans of the campaign, which also has a powerful opponent in Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The advocacy group says signatories “shirk responsibility to protect students from dangers of underage drinking.”

For those wondering about the initiative’s name, the ancient Greeks apparently believed that the purple gemstone amethyst warded off drunkenness and promoted moderation, according to the group’s Web site. —Paul Fain