When U.S. Sen. Barack Obama launched his bold bid in 2007 for the presidency of the United States, the contingency of college-aged voters was paramount to deciding the outcome of the election.
As in past big election years, college students mobilized in large numbers, that year mostly rallying to Obama’s call to help him lead a major turnaround in how the nation is run and who runs it.
Today, with only weeks left before the November 6 election and higher education funding emerging as a major issue in this year’s election battle, college campuses are again at the center of the intense election campaign between now-President Obama, seeking re-election, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
As the candidates blaze trails across the country, frequently using college campuses as the site of their public political rallies, campuses are abuzz with students, faculty and staff working to get their peers and others engaged in this year’s national elections. They’re holding seminars on the importance of participating in the election, how to register to vote and how to vote by absentee ballot.
“Much like the broader population, there is overwhelming interest” in this year’s election, said Dr. Alvin Thornton, a political scientist and current associate vice provost for academic affairs at Howard University. “Whether it turns into turnout is another question. That’s still to be determined.”
Even students who candidly say they have lost some of the zeal that sent them to the polls four years ago — most to vote for Obama — say sitting this election out is not an option.
They say their personal feelings are secondary to larger higher education community concerns about the future of federal funding for college aid and Pell Grants, political differences over federal student loan programs and the ongoing debate over the DREAM Act for the children of undocumented immigrants.
