Thursday, November 1, 2001

Playing politics
Students need to take active interest in politics, current events, some say
By Sarah McClellan
Staff Reporter

TCU students need to overcome the apathy typical of 18- to 21-year-olds and take an interest in current events, said students and local political officials.

Russell Langley, executive director of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, said it is important to have political groups on campus because they help students get involved in policy-making that directly influences them.

“From the price of water that affects the dorm rates to how students will be treated if the police raid a party, if you’re not active, public policy makers are not in a position to help you out,” Langley said.

Current TCU political groups include College Republicans, Young Democrats and the Student Peace Action Network.

Chris Dobson, a senior political science major, last year founded the Leftist Student Union, a group aimed to increase awareness of world violence. He said the group has since disbanded because of low attendance.

Political science Professor James Riddlesperger said campus political groups are prone to low attendance and inconsistency because college students are historically the least active participants in the political process.

“Since the 18-year-old vote came into play, 18 to 21-year-olds vote the least,” Riddlesperger said. “They are not plugged into the political system in college because issues that will be important to them later in life just simply aren’t (important to them now).”

Langely said the perception that politics don’t directly affect students needs to be combated.

“The first critical step is to realize what the financial situation of students has to do with elected officials,” Langley said. “Public policy-makers directly influence the amount of financial aid that is available to students. Students have a pocketbook issue in being interested in who represents them at the capitol.”

Pat Carlson, chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party, said the most important reasons to have political groups on campus are to educate students before they vote.

“Students need to know about the philosophical difference between the parties,” Carlson said. “There is such a huge difference.”

Despite low attendance at meetings, Young Democrats founder Josh Walls said the group continues its mission to educate students about issues and philosophical differences.

“I felt there were enough liberal-thinking people on campus that there needed to be a group where we could centralize our ideas,” said Wall, a senior political science major.

“We want to question the TCU student body and make them think about different issues and how they feel about them.”

Sarah McClellan
s.l.mcclellan@student.tcu.edu