Posted on 10/24/2003 12:57:32 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Dan Glickman, director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, was Wednesday's guest. He discussed a new poll the Institute conducted of US college students' political views. Here are excerpts from his remarks: On the political views of college students:
"College students are highly independent ... but they slightly lean Republican: 31 percent Republican, 27 percent Democrat, 38 percent independent."
On student support for President Bush:
"Defying conventional political wisdom, college students support President Bush. His approval rating is about 10 points higher among college students than the general population. While the approval rating has declined nationally it has held pretty steady among ... students."
On measuring students' political activity:
"College students are not political slackers, as a lot of folks may think. These numbers indicate that people do care. They do involve themselves in public service activities. And they do plan to participate in the 2004 election."
On why only 28 percent of students consider iraq as a concern to them:
"Without any personal vulnerability ... they have disconnected a lot of what is happening with the war from what they think about politics, because it has not affected them."
On why politicians often fail to seek out college students:
"It ... is a [nuisance] to go after new groups and expand them - particularly a group that doesn't have any formed opinions yet."
Earlier this week, Buzzanco brought a guest speaker who strongly denounced Israel to a colleague's Middle East history class. Buzzanco passed out fliers he prepared for his mock funeral in front of Brown & Root, and, as he left the class, he told the students, "See you all at the mock funeral. Dress in black and paint your faces black." ***
Parents mourn children killed during protests***"I would never try to stop Nathan from following his heart," Allsbrooks said. "But if I had known that I was going to lose my son to that, I would have intervened in any way possible."*** (LINKS to other groups influencing students)
Semester at Sea Program Celebrates 20 Years at Pitt***The program was among the first to take large groups of students in the early 1980s into mainland China and later, in the mid-1980s, to the former Soviet Union. Other benchmarks during the past 20 years include renewed visits to South Africa in the early 1990s, the inclusion of Vietnam and Cambodia as part of the field component in 1994, and most recently, Cuba since 1999.
During the past two decades, participants have had the opportunity to engage in dialogue with public figures such as Madeline Albright, Corazon Aquino, Peter Arnett, Fidel Castro, Arthur C. Clarke, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Richard Threlkeld, and Desmond Tutu.
A particularly successful element of Semester at Sea's in-port field program since 1994 has been involvement at the local level of area kindergarten to 12th grade students through the Vicarious Voyage Around the World program. Coordinated through the institute in conjunction with the shipboard administration, groups of three to five Semester at Sea students "adopt" a grade school class and communicate with them throughout the term. Personal exchanges during the voyage provide K-12 students with a very real connection to the experiences of those traveling around the world. Items sent home in "culture packets" - a newspaper, menu, map, stamps, or language brochure - enable the teacher to make the international learning experience come alive in the local classroom.***
Who Speaks for College Kids? [full text] Intriguing evidence indicates today's college students may be a potent political force in next year's election and beyond.
"Campus kids, the political offspring of soccer moms and office park dads, could be the tipping point in 2004," argues Dan Glickman, director of Harvard University's Institute of Politics, referring to the 9 million people age 18 to 24 now attending college and university. Earlier this month, his institute completed a survey of political views on campuses and found reasons for both hope and concern.
Defying conventional wisdom, the institute survey found that students are not largely a group of left-leaning political slackers. When asked for party affiliation, 38 percent called themselves independent, 31 percent Republican, and 27 percent Democrats. Four out of five say they will vote in the next election.
This youthful group also presents some contradictions. On the one hand, 61 percent approve of the president's performance, about 10 percent higher than the general public. On the other hand, nearly 90 percent say the Bush administration has been "hiding some things" or "mostly not telling the truth" when it comes to dealing with Iraq.
Nearly 90 percent say they consider themselves patriotic. But, perhaps reflecting their concerns about developments in Iraq, a third of the men and nearly 60 percent of the women said they would avoid a draft if one were reinstated to fight the war on terrorism.
Whatever the challenges one might see in students' attitudes, their encouraging faith in the political process needs to be nurtured. Two-thirds of them say political involvement can show tangible results, up 17 percent from a similar poll taken in 2000. More than six out of 10 expect to be more politically involved than their parents.
It will be a blessing for the country if they follow through on that goal. [End]
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Campus Watch***Mission Statement - Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum, reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North America, with an aim to improving them. The project mainly addresses five problems: analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students. Campus Watch fully respects the freedom of speech of those it debates while insisting on its own freedom to comment on their words and deeds. ***
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One-Sided Scholarship and Free Speech Violations***It's been a very busy couple weeks for Students for Academic Freedom. Our chapter list has now swelled to include 90 colleges and universities across the country. Stories of one-sided conferences and inappropriate political rantings in the classroom continue to reach us daily. Make sure to check our website www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org regularly for the latest news.
One particularly egregious example of a one-sided "academic" forum occurred recently at Furman University in South Carolina where the University together with the Richard W. Riley institute held a two-day "Women in Politics" conference. The program featured three very prominent women as headliners: Senator Hillary Clinton, journalist Lesley Stahl, and Children's Defense Founder Marian Wright Edelman. All three of these individuals are known for their left-of-center political views. The conference included dozens of speakers, among them a few lesser-known Republicans, yet did not include a single conservative speaker with anywhere near the prominence of these three headliners.
Unwilling to let such a biased event stand unchallenged, Students for Academic Freedom together with our local chapter at Furman placed an ad in the campus newspaper criticizing the choice of speakers this ostensibly neutral event. You can view a picture of that ad here.
In further news, the unfortunate trend of shutting down Affirmative Action Bake Sales on university campuses continues. An affirmative action bake sale at the University of Washington was shut down last Wednesday when an angry group of students attacked the College Republicans who were holding the event, tore down their signs, and threw their cookies and literature on the ground. Rather than arresting or detaining the students causing the melee, the campus police instead ordered the College Republicans to close up shop in the interests of "public safety." Students for Academic Freedom is on the case, and you can expect to hear more about this soon.
Please let me know if any incidents such as these occur on your campus. If you hear about a major conference that the university is sponsoring, take a careful look at the speakers list to see if multiple perspectives are represented.
For example, if your school holds a forum on environmentalism and every single speaker concurs that global warming will devastate the earth in the next few decades, this conference is politically one-sided. Many experts disagree that global warming exists or is a significant problem, and a conference on that subject that doesn't include this viewpoint is severely lacking in educational value.
If you uncover such a conference on your campus, please contact me at 202-969-2467 or at Sara@studentsforacademicfreedom.org and let us help you mount a campaign to pressure your administration to seek out a broader diversity of viewpoints. Remember, you're not getting a real education if you're only hearing half the story.
Best Regards,
Sara Russo
National Campus Director Semester at Sea Program Celebrates 20 Years at Pitt***The program was among the first to take large groups of students in the early 1980s into mainland China and later, in the mid-1980s, to the former Soviet Union. Other benchmarks during the past 20 years include renewed visits to South Africa in the early 1990s, the inclusion of Vietnam and Cambodia as part of the field component in 1994, and most recently, Cuba since 1999.
During the past two decades, participants have had the opportunity to engage in dialogue with public figures such as Madeline Albright, Corazon Aquino, Peter Arnett, Fidel Castro, Arthur C. Clarke, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Richard Threlkeld, and Desmond Tutu.
A particularly successful element of Semester at Sea's in-port field program since 1994 has been involvement at the local level of area kindergarten to 12th grade students through the Vicarious Voyage Around the World program. Coordinated through the institute in conjunction with the shipboard administration, groups of three to five Semester at Sea students "adopt" a grade school class and communicate with them throughout the term. Personal exchanges during the voyage provide K-12 students with a very real connection to the experiences of those traveling around the world. Items sent home in "culture packets" - a newspaper, menu, map, stamps, or language brochure - enable the teacher to make the international learning experience come alive in the local classroom.***
Note: Sorry for the duplicate "Pitt" post above. It is NOT a positive program and belongs in the first post.
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