Misplaced innovation

I recently received an email from the Dartmouth alumni relations office which contained a link to a news item with the headline "Engineering students challenged by Professor John Collier and President Jim Yong Kim to develop solutions to high-risk drinking." Gamely I followed the link (the article can be read here: http://now.dartmouth.edu/2011/11/dartmouth-engineering-students-help-tackle-binge-drinking/), and I must confess I was disappointed with what I read.

Students in ENGS 21, Dartmouth's undergraduate "Introduction to Engineering" class, were tasked with tackling the underage binge-drinking epidemic on campus. I have written before in this space about the lack of personal accountability when it comes to underage drinking. I reject the assertion that illegal consumption of alcohol is an inevitability for, much less the prerogative of, college students. The current Dartmouth administration (with which I largely have no problem) inexplicably ignores this reality, though it is quick to boast--hypocritically, if not necessarily inaccurately--that Dartmouth is the training ground of future world leaders and problem solvers.

Anyway, there have been a lot of useful, even brilliant products and systems to come out of Engines 21 over the years. But that is all the more reason that this current initiative is a poor allocation of resources. Let the engineering students work on solutions to problems that need to have solutions engineered for them. As for underage binge drinking, the solution is simple enough: DON'T DRINK UNDERAGE.