Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board. 

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

LAURA SCHINAGLE

EDITOR IN CHIEF

MELISSA SCHOLKE

EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

DEREK WOLFE

MANAGING EDITOR

420 Maynard St. 

Ann Arbor, MI 48109
 tothedaily@umich.edu

Edited and managed by students at 

the University of Michigan since 1890.

4

Thursday, May 21, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION

FROM THE DAILY

Modifying the MIP

Legislation would transform the MIP into a civil infraction
T 

he proposed Senate Bill 332 would change underage posses-
sion of alcohol to a civil infraction. Referred to as a “minor in 
possession,” or an MIP, underage possession of alcohol is cur-

rently a misdemeanor crime. The bill would retain the fees associated 
with MIPs — up to $100 for the first violation and $200 for the second 
violation— and the third violation would then be considered a mis-
demeanor. However, the first and second violations would no longer 
involve jail time or a criminal record. Additionally, this bill would limit 
the ability of law enforcement officials to require breathalyzer tests 
from minors they have reasonable cause to believe have been drinking. 
Instead, law enforcement officials would only be able to request that 
minors submit to the exam. The benefits of this bill are clear. It would 
prevent young people from being denied scholarships, college admis-
sion and job opportunities because of a youthful mistake, and allow 
the re-allocation of resources currently being used to process MIPs in 
court. Although this bill would lessen the consequences for underage 
drinking, it retains enough consequences to be similarly preventative 
as the current law.

Senate Bill 332 was intro-

duced by Sen. Rick Jones (R–
Grand Ledge) in an effort to 
stop MIP cases from clogging 
criminal courts. Reducing MIP 
cases would allow for police 
officers, prosecutors and judg-
es to use their time for other 
more pressing concerns. Par-
ticularly, the legislation would 
allow police officers to work to 
make their communities safer 
and reduce the amount of time 
they need to spend as witnesses 
to these cases. However, some 
MIP cases would still be mis-
demeanors, such as those that 
include the purchase of alcohol 
using 
fraudulent 
identifica-

tion and any violations past the 
second civil infraction. This 
would prevent courts from 
being hindered but still demon-
strate that underage drinking 
is taken seriously. Addition-
ally, it should be noted that 
in 2013, the counties with the 
highest amounts of MIPs were 
all counties containing major 
public universities. Two of the 
top four counties are home to 
Michigan State University and 
the University of Michigan. 
Clearly, MIPs largely affect col-
lege students, who are partici-
pating in the widely accepted 
and practiced social activity.

Although underage drink-

ing is illegal, the current status 
is too harsh of a punishment to 
impose when the behavior is 
so prevalent on college cam-
puses. We need to ensure that 
those students caught break-
ing this law aren’t stuck with 
a criminal record and won’t be 
prohibited from student loans 
and scholarships as a result of 
this infraction. By doing so, 
the proposed legislation pro-
tects students’ futures from 
being permanently impacted 
by a short-term indiscretion. 
Rather than funnel students 
into the criminal justice sys-
tem, more educational efforts 
should be extended to curb 

S

itting on a yoga mat with our 
feet dangling over the edge of 
the dilapidated, wooden frame-

work of the balco-
ny attached to my 
apartment, my best 
friend and I pon-
dered the rapid-
ity with which the 
culmination 
of 

assignments, proj-
ects, all-nighters, 
exams and trips 
across 
the 
state 

had propelled us to 
the summer before 
our senior year of college. The boom-
ing strains of house music from across 
the street mingled with each laugh 
and anxious thought that infused the 
humid, summer night around us. We 
discussed everything from jobs to 
relocating to the shared sense of inde-
cisiveness we’d both need to overcome 
to eventually make these decisions. 
We delved deeper into the future, try-
ing to imagine separate timelines for 
all the goals and accomplishments we 
hoped were awaiting us in the loom-
ing expanse of uncertainty ahead.

Although the notion of strategiz-

ing and plotting out our lives may be 
appealing and offer some reassur-
ance, there’s absolutely no guaran-
tee that our prospective goals and 
achievements will occur in sync with 
some defined schedule we attempt to 
craft during our undergraduate years. 
Obstacles are inevitable. Extenuating 
circumstances may someday lead our 
personal and professional ambitions 
to conflict, forcing the prioritization 
of one over the other. For a great deal 
of women, the reality of this potential 
scenario is reinforced during discus-
sions about maintaining an effective 
balance between personal and profes-

sional life and trying to “have it all.”

An article by Liza Mundy in The 

Atlantic titled “Playing the Granny 
Card” suggests the recent surge of 
highly ambitious female politicians 
and officials — Hillary Clinton, Eliza-
beth Warren, Ruth Bader Ginsberg 
and Elizabeth Merkel to name a few— 
who are seeking or holding leadership 
positions of immense clout in their 
60s is due to the notion that women 
are “often held back in midlife by 
domestic responsibilities” and “are 
in many ways suited to shift into high 
gear at a later age.” Women — due to 
discrepancies between the methods 
by which they are evaluated in com-
parison to their male counterparts — 
assume positions at a more advanced 
age. While only 4.8 percent of Fortune 
500 CEOs are women, those who do 
eventually advance to the position are 
around the average age of 52.8 years 
old. The overwhelmingly larger por-
tion of male colleagues usually does 
so around the age of 50.2. The trend of 
older women in public office is further 
supported by the fact that the median 
age for female representatives in the 
U.S. House of Representatives is 59.1.

While it’s both extremely extraor-

dinary and inspiring to see that a 
woman’s ability to make a substantial 
impact upon society isn’t constricted 
by her age, the accompanying notion 
that female accomplishments may, 
then, need to be delayed until a wom-
an’s domestic duties are concluded — 
whatever she chooses those to be — is 
concerning. Some positions in cer-
tain fields, to an extent, will always 
require the immense knowledge and 
experience acquired by a practicing 
individual of an advanced age. Action, 
however, should be taken to assist 
women so they don’t need to wait until 
their 50s, or even their 60s, to consider 

A solution past due

MELISSA
SCHOLKE

drinking behaviors in underage stu-
dents. Additionally, by diminishing 
the potential for punishment, the 
modified law may prevent students 
who may have already acquired an 
MIP from adopting more danger-
ous habits or re-locating drinking to 
unsafe settings simply out of a fear of 
facing further criminal consequences. 
As anti-drinking enforcement efforts 
increased on campus during Welcome 
Week this past year, for example, an 
increase of drinking behavior was 
seen in off-campus housing where 
these behaviors are far less monitored. 

Additionally, rather than instill-

ing students with a fear of incurring 
criminal charges, fines and a multi-
tude of potential future consequences, 
the legislation emphasizes the idea 

that drinking is largely a public health 
issue. More effort needs to be directed 
at advocating responsible and safe 
drinking habits in college communi-
ties. The bill — by removing the conse-
quences of criminal charges — removes 
deterrents that may prevent students 
from seeking medical assistance if 
a drinking problem does exist. Cur-
rently, a medical amnesty law exists in 
Michigan that protects any minor from 
receiving an MIP for seeking medical 
treatment for alcohol poisoning for 
either another minor or for themselves. 
However, if minors are unaware of 
this medical amnesty legislation, the 
diminished consequences offered by 
this bill could further reassure minors 
that they won’t face criminal charges 
solely for seeking treatment. 

