Adults at 18

Since the 26th Amendment in 1971 gave 18-year-olds the right to vote, almost half of the states in the nation now consider 18 rather than 21 the age of adulthood. This includes almost all college undergraduates, and the redefinition of the legal age virtually dooms the tradition of colleges acting in loco parentis. To survey the future changes in campus life, the Council of Student Personnel Associations in Higher Education commissioned a study by University of Georgia Education Professor D. Parker Young. Some of Young's observations on the social implications of adulthood at 18:

> Students can sue and be sued. Colleges will be freer to take students to court in cases of vandalism or disruption without involving the parents as middlemen. But the schools are also more vulnerable to legal action by students protesting against professors who skip classes or grade arbitrarily, or administrators who close buildings as a result of demonstrations by other students. Says Patricia Rueckel, vice president for student development at Georgetown: "The fact that they can constantly bring us into small-claims court is kind of scary."

> The colleges will have to revise the tradition of mailing grades and disciplinary reports to parents. Warns Young: "There seems to be no legal justification for the disclosure of such information io parents or guardians unless permission is granted by the student."

>Financial aid to students has usually been based on a standardized form known as the "Parents' Confidential Statement." But students may now claim that only their own financial status is relevant. Thus if they themselves are legally independent and have no income, they cannot be barred, as minors from prosperous families now are, from loans and scholarships that are based on need.

> Although the Supreme Court has just upheld the right of state universities to charge higher fees for out-of-state residents, it may now be easier for students to establish legal residence and thus gain the lower rate. Such a development would hurt public institutions, which rely on income from differential tuition. But it could help those private colleges that receive public funds as subsidies for in-state students.

> Some courts have already held that colleges cannot oblige students over 21 to take rooms in dormitories. If those rulings are now extended to students over 18, the colleges stand to lose considerable revenue.

"In fact," concludes the report, which is being forwarded to 480 college presidents around the nation, "almost any campus activity seems to be affected indirectly by the lowering of the age of majority. A new awareness of adulthood on the part of students will tend to force the concept of accountability for the required expenditure of any funds or efforts on the part of students."

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