NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., Feb. 20 -- As underage consumption of alcohol has remained a serious problem on Rutgers University campuses these past years, there is still a huge gap between students and the authorities on this highly contentious issue.

Underage drinking is a major challenge for universities in the U.S. More than 80 percent of American youth consume alcohol before their 21st birthday, according to a 2010 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This report also stated that “more extreme forms of drinking by college students are escalating”.

Rutgers is not an exception. According to crime statistics released by the Rutgers Police Department, offenses related to underage possession of alcohol has remained pretty stable these past years. From 1152 in 2008, the number of offenses went down to 1093 in 2009 before rising again to 1215 in 2010. Statistics for 2011 are not yet available as they are presently reviewed to ensure accuracy, said the RUPD.

Nevertheless, “with regard to trends, the department continues to see a decrease in the number of alcohol-related offenses which are reported,” said Lt. Michael Rein from the RUPD in an email interview. “This decrease is attributed most notably to aggressive education and enforcement campaigns.”

The fact remains that underage drinking is a big issue for Rutgers police. “To say it is the most important challenge for the RUPD would be unfair, but I would be remiss in not saying it is a challenge,” said Rein.

From the student perspective, underage binge drinking is a common practice. It especially happens at weekend parties in dorms and off-campus houses, according to accounts given by several Rutgers students.

One of those students, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has got into trouble with the police twice since last September because she was caught holding alcohol in the public highway while she was 20. The first time, a police officer just reprimanded her. But the second time, which happened in December, she was charged with underage possession of alcohol. She has been summoned by a criminal court and has to go to the hearing this week.

“I will plead guilty and I was told that I'm just going to be fined,” she said.

“I think repression of underage drinking is too severe at Rutgers as well as everywhere in the U.S.,” she added.

She also thinks that the drinking age should be lowered. “Young people are driven to drink secretly, which leads to excessive consumption. If they were authorized to drink alcohol, it would be more easily controlled and regulated,” she said.

In 2008, more than 100 college presidents asserted the same kind of argument when they created the Amethyst Initiative, a call to rethink the legal drinking age, as CBS News and many media outlets reported at that time.

But authorities and specialists generally disagree with this standpoint.

In response to the Amethyst Initiative, a study published in the January 2011 issue of the "Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs" suggested that such a measure would be ineffective.

Elizabeth Amaya-Fernandez, who is a health education specialist responsible for alcohol and other drug education at Rutgers Health Services, also thinks that lowering the drinking age would not be a solution.

She admitted that underage drinking is a big issue today at Rutgers. However, “we also know that the majority of our students – underage or not – tend to drink responsibly,” she said in an email interview. “Two-thirds stop at three drinks or less.”

“Yet, it is still a matter of great concern for universities,” she said.

Amaya-Fernandez, who said she has coordinated many awareness programs at Rutgers, doesn't believe that police action against underage drinking is too harsh. “I think we strive to strike a balance at RU,” she said.

However, underage drinking problems go beyond Rutgers as they are also closely linked to non-campus property, such as the bars in the city of New Brunswick.

Last July, the N.J. Division of Alcohol Beverage Control, along with New Brunswick police, raided the Scarlet Pub, a bar located on Easton Avenue, where many Rutgers students go around at night. They charged 23 people with underage drinking, as NJ.com and several local media outlets reported.

Thomas Holman, the 28-year-old manager of the Scarlet Pub, who was charged with selling alcohol to underage customers, said his bar has been unjustly targeted by the authorities. He asserted that it is now the strictest college bar in New Brunswick and was already stricter than most bars before the police busting.

“It's very frustrating as a bar manager to watch other bars flourishing this school year by breaking the rules when we're doing things the right way, and constantly trying to revive the reputation of our business which has been falsely tarnished,” he said.

Holman even suggested that certain other bars in the town are using corruption methods to avoid punishment for serving alcohol to persons underage. “They pay the right people to ensure they won't get watched as closely,” he said.

According to him, underage drinking is the alcohol law that is the most difficult to police. “The hardest problem was the onslaught of fake IDs from overseas which flooded the bars in Spring 2011,” he said. “Other alcohol laws such as over-serving patrons are much easier to control.”

Holman believes that the drinking, smoking, voting age and the age to join the army should all be the same.

“Since they are not, the penalties should be far less severe,” he said. “They try to ruin people's lives with such harsh penalties.”