University presidents from more than 100 colleges around the U.S. have petitioned to lower the drinking age to 18.
But UNM President David Schmidly doesn't share their views.
He said there should be a balance between socializing and academics, and lowering the drinking age would interfere with that balance.
"I don't believe you can solve the problems of binge drinking or drunk driving by handing kids a bottle," Schmidly said.
The petition - signed by, among others, the presidents of Duke, Tufts and Johns Hopkins - claims lowering the drinking age would promote responsible alcohol use.
Jill Anne Yeagley, director of the Campus Office for Substance Abuse, agrees with Schmidly's stance.
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"(Keeping the drinking age at 21) is based on research and previous experience," she said. "The people (signing the petition) are not utilizing the research and the facts that are out there."
In 1984, the drinking age was set at 21, and that prevented an
estimated 25,000 traffic deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
"The crashes involving young people escalated, and injuries related to alcohol increased (when the drinking age was not 21)," Yeagley said.
But some students are in favor of letting 18-year-olds buy alcohol.
"People who are underage are going to drink, and the 'just say no' approach doesn't cut it," student Damian Necochea said.
Anna Vestling, a junior at UNM, said she has lived in Sweden and New Zealand, where drinking laws are much more lax.
"I spent a lot of time with my peers as a teenager, and no one had a drinking problem or would binge drink or would have crazy keggers where people would get drunk and throw up," she said.
But emulating those countries won't necessarily work for the U.S., she said.
"I think it's a culture of repression in America," Vestling said. "I don't think that even lowering the drinking age to 18 would solve the drinking problem."
Economics professor Melissa Binder said she can understand why people would want to experiment with lowering the drinking age to 18.
"It's a hassle to have a dry campus," Binder said. It costs UNM money to police the campus for underage drinkers and even more money to punish them, she said.
But Yeagley said the drinking age is set at 21 for physiological reasons, as well.
"We've learned a lot about the brain and how it is impacted by alcohol. What we've found is that the brain is still developing well into your 20s," Yeagley said. "The pre-frontal cortex is one of the last areas to develop. The pre-frontal cortex is involved in decision-making and foreseeing consequences."
Michael Westervelt contributed to this report.
