Brown students have a reputation for being politically active, and this year has been no exception, with many canvassing for votes, making phone calls and sporting T-shirts promoting presidential candidates. But a new poll conducted by CBS News, U-WIRE and the Chronicle of Higher Education shows that the same cannot be said of college students in battleground states.
According to the survey, college students in the four battleground states considered - Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania - support Obama by a 2-to-1 margin, but are less politically involved than might be expected.
One in three students "had displayed a campaign sign or tried to recruit a friend or family member to a particular campaign," the survey said.
Elyse Ashburn, a senior editor at the Chronicle, said that most of the results of the survey did not come as a major surprise.
"I think it largely was in line with what we expected, which was to see a majority supporting Obama over McCain," Ashburn said.
Nevertheless, Ashburn said she had not foreseen some of the "nuances of the poll." For example, she said she was surprised that so many students in battleground states - 94 percent - said they were registered to vote.
That figure excited politically informed and active students at Brown. President of Brown Democrats Harrison Kreisberg '10 said high levels of voter registration indicate that students are "a serious political force."
Professor of Public Policy Marion Orr said he was not surprised by the poll's findings that one third of students in battleground states are politically active.
Students have "a life that sometimes can interrupt their best of intentions," Orr said.
Orr said it makes sense that the majority of students, as well as the majority of people in general, is not actively involved in the presidential campaigns.
"There are people who work every day, nonstudents, that is, who would love to do more for Senator McCain and Senator Obama, but simply can't because of their work schedules," he added.
Kreisberg said Brown has been one of the most involved campuses in Rhode Island during the presidential race, but "there are some people who have opinions who haven't really gotten involved."
This disparity between ideas and action seems to affect not only Democrats, but Republicans as well.
Sean Quigley '10, president of the Brown Republicans and a Herald opinions columnist, said, "There is a fair amount of talking and not doing at Brown. Even in the Brown Republicans, consistently we only get two to three students to campaign events even though we have 15 to 20 students (at meetings) each week."
In fact, there is no data on political activity in the general population by which the poll's findings can be judged, Ashburn said. In other words, the poll showed that a minority of students is politically active, but it did not show that students are less active than people in other age groups.
Regardless of the survey's findings, students in battleground states reported having witnessed a great deal of political activity among their peers.
"Everywhere you walk on campus right now you see signs for the two candidates," said Becca Heymann, a junior at Washington University in St. Louis, in the battleground state of Missouri. "There have been informational fliers everywhere, not only about the presidential candidates but also about everything else on the ballot."
Alex Rose, who is taking a year off from school before matriculating at Harvard next fall, is currently working for the Obama campaign in south Philadelphia, where he said he sees a large amount of political activity among students.
"There's certainly a lot of enthusiasm and I would say actually 1 in 10 people we talk to are willing to do some volunteering and do some work," Rose said.
Orr said that while the extent to which all people can be politically engaged is important, the significance of voting should not be understated.
"The extent to which people carry out their right to vote is important," Orr said.
