No More Politics as Usual

No matter how many political campaigns have blogs or Facebook pages, no matter how many celebrities and musicians stump for Rock the Vote, the stereotype persists: college students generally react to politics with a shrug.

Rani Woods (CAS’08), a political science major concentrating in international relations, says the problem is the heavy focus on strategies, polls, and rhetorical sparring at the expense of issues that college students do care about, often deeply — such as foreign policy, the environment, and immigration. As a result, Woods, president of the Boston University College Democrats, along with other Boston-area college students of all political stripes, have organized a nonpartisan conference on a wide range of causes, with political involvement a secondary theme.

The Race to 2008 will take place at 10 a.m. on Saturday, November 10, and again on Sunday, November 11, in the George Sherman Union. Speakers will include Arshad Hasan, executive director of the grassroots political activism group Democracy for America; Andrew Bacevich, a College of Arts and Sciences professor of international relations; and Stephen Bird, president of the Massachusetts Energy Consumers Alliance. The conference opens with a video address by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel (Hon.’74), BU’s Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, and closes with one from Howard Zinn, a CAS professor emeritus of political science and the author of A People’s History of the United States.

Saturday’s agenda will focus on foreign policy issues such as the war in Iraq, Asian markets, and human rights, along with the ins and outs of political activism. Sunday’s will include training sessions on organizing for a cause, and speakers will address domestic issues ranging from blogs to higher education to health care.

“If people care about causes, they know that causes don’t end when a president is elected,” Woods says. “They’re everlasting.”

BU Today: What was the genesis of this conference?
Woods: This summer, I was attending the national convention for the College Democrats of America in Columbia, S.C. We noticed that Massachusetts was one of the states the group overlooked. It’s too blue to care about. Democrats think it’s too blue to get engaged, and Republicans think it’s too blue to bother. We decided it was time to put Massachusetts back on the map. We figured focusing on issues rather than partisan politics was the best way to gain the attention of our peers.

How did you choose the weekend’s agenda?
We talked with students from about 30 schools throughout Massachusetts and New England, and we got an idea of what student groups are most effective. We wanted to engage students who care about issues, not necessarily about a party. But when it comes to election time, they definitely will choose a candidate. You have a bunch of students who aren’t quite as engaged with politics. They may think it’s kind of a joke. But if they have an issue they care about it, then they’re more likely to become part of the political process.

So, you’d argue that college students are not apathetic when it comes to civic engagement?
I think that’s a misconception that comes from people trying to label each generation with an issue. But this generation hasn’t found a single issue yet. There are so many issues that people are aligned with — whether it’s the environment, the war in Iraq, or Darfur. Also, this generation of students hasn’t taken to the streets the way other generations have. I think that most students are involved, but it’s in a more conventional way, through internships and volunteer work for causes they care about. This generation works more inside the system than outside of it.

But in addition to discussing the big issues, the conference agenda does come back to political activism, doesn’t it?
To be political doesn’t mean you have to campaign for a political party. That’s something that our generation definitely believes. We’re talking about getting out the vote. We’re talking about the elements of a campaign. Campaigns are about issues, and issues don’t end after election day. But for all these issues that we’re talking about, there is an element of campaigning to them. There is an element of training that could be valuable to students — how do you organize, how do you get people to come to your meetings?

We hope to remind people why it’s important to be engaged in politics, but we’re not trying to reach only the staunch political types and the future pundits. We want to engage a bunch of students who generally you wouldn’t find at a political conference.

What are the presidential candidates failing to do, and how can they better engage young people?
I don’t think they’re meeting college students. They might say, “I have a Facebook group” or “I’m on MySpace.” But the campaigns don’t make students a priority, and when they do, it’s not really to convince us; it’s to work us. The most effective supporter candidates can have is someone who really believes in their cause. Engage us in a conversation.

We will have representatives from the presidential campaigns at the conference to say to college students, “We know these are the issues that matter to you, and here are our positions.” We have commitments from the Democratic campaigns of Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Richardson, and Kucinich. And from the Republicans, we’ll have staff from the Romney, McCain, Paul, Thompson, and Giuliani campaigns. This is the only time that representatives from all of these campaigns are going to be together in Massachusetts between now and the primaries. We want to show them that this generation matters to them.

The Race to 2008 will take place Saturday, November 10, and Sunday, November 11, beginning at 10 a.m. each day in the George Sherman Union, 775 Commonwealth Ave. Students attending any New England college are welcome. The cost is $20 to attend the conference and $30 to attend the conference and stay at an area school. Click here to register.

Chris Berdik can be reached at cberdik@bu.edu.