2008 Woodie Awards
Political involvement trends change among students
Joanna Knight
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: News
Originally published: 2/21/08 at 4:07 PM EST
Last update: 2/21/08 at 4:06 PM EST
Three years and one day before he was shot and killed in the Ambassador Hotel, Robert F. Kennedy delivered the commencement address at the graduation of the Plattsburgh State class of 1965.
"You have an unparalleled opportunity," he said, "Not to find a world, but to make one."
Tom Moran, director of the Institute for Ethics in Public Life at PSUC, remembers the late 1960's as a time when students here, motivated by such powerfully worded calls to service, were focused on "making" that world and stayed closely attuned to the issues of their day.
"JFK ushered in a new era, embodied a commitment to service. A significant number of students were paying very close attention to social justice issues, to the war, to certain social policies."
In the late sixties and early seventies, after the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., and after Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern's loss to Richard Nixon, Moran recalls seeing the beginning of a "marked period of disengagement" among students.
Now, he senses a trend toward political involvement here, a move away from the attitudes of twenty years ago.
"We're in the midst of a political season which seems to be galvanizing us as a society and which is bringing about the return of the student voter."
Nationwide, student organizers have presented a strong young voter turnout for Barack Obama, with 60 percent of voters younger than 25 supporting the senator.
According to the Kennedy School of Government's Vanishing Voter poll, the number of students who say they are paying attention to developments in the current election cycle has almost doubled from the 42 percent who said they were watching in 2004, when less than half the eligible voters in New York showed up to their precinct on election day.
A Time Magazine poll lists health care as the priority issue for people between the ages of 18 and 29, followed by the war in Iraq and concern about employment. The cost of education, set to double every nine years at the current rate of inflation, is of concern to students as well.
"You have an unparalleled opportunity," he said, "Not to find a world, but to make one."
Tom Moran, director of the Institute for Ethics in Public Life at PSUC, remembers the late 1960's as a time when students here, motivated by such powerfully worded calls to service, were focused on "making" that world and stayed closely attuned to the issues of their day.
"JFK ushered in a new era, embodied a commitment to service. A significant number of students were paying very close attention to social justice issues, to the war, to certain social policies."
In the late sixties and early seventies, after the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., and after Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern's loss to Richard Nixon, Moran recalls seeing the beginning of a "marked period of disengagement" among students.
Now, he senses a trend toward political involvement here, a move away from the attitudes of twenty years ago.
"We're in the midst of a political season which seems to be galvanizing us as a society and which is bringing about the return of the student voter."
Nationwide, student organizers have presented a strong young voter turnout for Barack Obama, with 60 percent of voters younger than 25 supporting the senator.
According to the Kennedy School of Government's Vanishing Voter poll, the number of students who say they are paying attention to developments in the current election cycle has almost doubled from the 42 percent who said they were watching in 2004, when less than half the eligible voters in New York showed up to their precinct on election day.
A Time Magazine poll lists health care as the priority issue for people between the ages of 18 and 29, followed by the war in Iraq and concern about employment. The cost of education, set to double every nine years at the current rate of inflation, is of concern to students as well.
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