Volunteers now flush with free time

After late nights and long days spent talking to strangers to support her yearlong addiction, Ariel Werner '09 has finally entered "detox" - election detox, that is.

As the votes were tallied Tuesday and President-elect Barack Obama spoke to thousands at Chicago's Grant Park, some Brown students waved goodbye to the grueling months of electoral campaigning. Student campaigners like Werner said they plan to unwind after intensive campaigning by returning to their previous activities, while still remaining involved in political issues.

A political science concentrator, Werner said her decision to volunteer for the Obama campaign was a "natural extension" of her normal activities. "In 2005, when I first got to Brown, I worked on the local Rhode Island elections," she said.

Werner began campaigning for Obama at the end of August of last year. She first worked in New Hampshire, campaigning there on weekends and even spending a week canvassing in January before the primaries.

But Werner said it was difficult to balance her political life and her normal activities. "The detox will mostly be going back to school, work, my thesis - all the things I've had a very difficult time concentrating on while working on the campaign," she said. "I might start working on the local elections."

Ellis Rochelson '09, a Herald sports columnist, was also busy campaigning for Obama for much of the past year, canvassing in New Hampshire as of last November and making calls to Ohio during the last few weeks before the presidential election as part of the get-out-the-vote campaign.

Rochelson, a theatre arts concentrator and pre-med student, said he felt "spread thin" trying to keep up with his academics and extracurricular activities, such as his improvisation and a cappella groups, while campaigning.

"It will be good after the campaign to see my friends a little more who haven't been involved in the campaign and be able to focus on my extracurricular improv group that I care a lot about," said Rochelson, a member of long-form improvisational comedy troupe Starla and Sons.

Still, Rochelson was quick to add that he has enjoyed being a part of the Obama campaign. "It's stressful and I want to tear my hair out at every poll I see, but it's exciting and fun," he said.

Rochelson said he plans to stay involved in the political process even after the elections are over. "I want to find more local initiatives," he said, adding that the presidential contest may feel like "American Idol," but that there are other, smaller ways to "make a difference."

Last Friday, Werner drove to Greensboro, N.C., in order to campaign through Election Day. She ran a staging location in High Point, N.C., a neighborhood south of Greensboro.

"New Hampshire seemed pretty locked up, while North Carolina was one of the neglected states," Werner said. "So we decided to come down here and help."

A Brown alum who is the deputy field organizer for the region was able to "plug (Werner) into a position of responsibility," she said, adding that her previous experience as the student coordinator of the Rhode Island Right to Vote Campaign helped her acquire her job.

"I hold down the fort at one of the campaign offices," Werner said. "We have a number of volunteers from Greensboro, High Point and out of town. I'm basically managing these volunteers, looking at the turf and dispatching people to hit that turf to make sure that this section of High Point is covered."

Werner called her week in North Carolina a "professional vacation," adding that she campaigned with a number of Brown alums, including her boyfriend.

Werner said campaigning is "incredibly exciting," but added that the work has its ups and downs. "It's craze and sleeplessness," she said.

Brown students who supported John McCain were not actively campaigning recently, Sean Quigley '10, president of the Brown Republicans and a Herald opinions columnist, wrote The Herald in an e-mail. "We all just provide moral support, as it were," he wrote.

Still, some McCain supporters did campaign for the presidential candidate during the primary season.

Bryan Smith '10 campaigned for McCain in Washington, D.C., over winter break and in Rhode Island during the primaries.

Smith said he did not campaign in the weeks immediately before the election because of "time constraints" and because he did not think his efforts would have much of an impact. "Campaigning in Rhode Island, Massachusetts or Connecticut for John McCain isn't going to have an effect," he said.

Overall, now that the campaign season has ended, students said they had a difficult time visualizing how their lives would change after the election.

"After every election night there's like this black hole," said Laura Tsunoda '10, a member of Brown Students for Barack Obama, which organized campaigning in New Hampshire.

If the election hadn't gone as planned, Tsunoda said she would "watch a lot of West Wing," adding that a smooth election would allow her to refocus on other forms of civic engagement.

Tsunoda, a public policy concentrator, said her experiences campaigning were time consuming but positive. "There's a sense of doing something larger than yourself," she said.

Rochelson said, results aside, the experience of campaigning has changed his perspective on America.

"Regardless of what happens, my faith in this country has been strengthened by this process and people's enthusiasm," he said. "It's had a lasting, solidifying effect on my patriotism and my confidence that I can make a difference."

"When I feel like I'm being stretched too thin," he said. "I remember that I don't want to wake up on November 5th wishing I had done something more."