YOUTH OUTLOOK

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Political Mood on Campus --
Tuned Out, Fed Up and Awfully Busy

By Jeff Birkeland

Date: 10-26-96

In the 1960s, Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary summed up the era's campus culture as "tune in, turn on, drop out." Today the mood of rambunctious group defiance has long since vanished. At U.C. Berkeley's famed Sproul Plaza at week before the presidential elections, not a single Dole or Clinton table was up and running. PNS reporter Jeff Birkeland, a graduate student at U.C. Davis, reports for YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people published by PNS.

DAVIS, CA. -- To paraphrase the late Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary, the mood on California college campuses just one week before the presidential elections is: "tuned out, fed up and awfully busy."

In a nation of non-voters where election turnout in Presidential years hovers at 50 percent, the youth vote is even smaller. On average, 35 percent of 21-to-24-year-olds cast ballots -- the 1992 elections saw a slight rise to 38 percent. This year, "the polls show that young people are somewhat more disillusioned than they were in 1992," says Curtis Gans, who directs the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate in Washington, D.C. "They invested in Clinton and are disappointed."

Tho Vinh Banh, a senior at the University of California's Berkeley campus majoring in political science and psychology, agrees. "I was more active four years ago," she recalls. "Clinton had enthusiasm and related to us a little. Now you see his wishy-washy stands and it's hard to get enthusiastic."

Students say job and grade worries leave them no time for politics. "People think because you're in school you're caught up in current events," remarks Angelina Hernandez, a senior psychology major from U.C. Berkeley. "But I haven't watched the debates at all. You have school, midterms and work to deal with."

"We're constantly told that it's very hard to find a job nowadays," says Berkeley sophomore Mark Ferlatte, who studies computer science. "It's a running joke that you're apt to wind up homeless and wandering around Telegraph Ave." To avoid distractions that would cut into study time, Ferlatte's group house avoided getting a TV set. "For some of us, college can almost be a media blackout."

When students do find the time to check the political news, many don't like what they see. Well-honed abilities to smell out a sales pitch, sharpened by childhoods spent watching TV advertising, translates into political cynicism. "People want to support someone," says U.C. Berkeley sophomore Singh Shannjit, 19. "But you've also got to look at the opportunity costs. Does it even really matter?"

U.C. Davis junior and Davis' College Republicans director Nick Briseno agrees: "If students had a choice, someone that they could actually trust, things would be better. Now it's just people choosing between two candidates, neither of whom they trust."

Many young people scoff at Bob Dole's efforts to connect to youth concerns -- his reference to having a web page, or his "just don't do drugs" slogan -- as transparent, if not condescending. "It's like he thinks drugs are supposed to be our one big issue. But we're interested in tuition fee increases and student loans, and also the economy," points out U.C. Davis junior Lisa Chin.

In addition to fears about their futures, students say the biggest difference between their generation and the 1960s' is the absence of salient, unifying issues like the Vietnam War or the civil rights movement. "Outside of Proposition 209 (the California Civil Rights Initiative, which would eliminate affirmative action), there are no real hot-button issues out there," Chin says. And, adds Briseno, "students are split on affirmative action as well, whether to end it or just fix it."

The lack of political interest in the current campaign is noticeable on Berkeley's famed Sproul Plaza, home to the free-speech movement. On a recent day, only one political table -- for Proposition 209 -- was up and running. Most students congregated around tables advertising ethnic or socially based clubs. "The religious groups and fraternities are just more persistent out here," says Tho Vinh Banh. "A lot of people don't even know what Proposition 209 is about."

Singh Shannjit, the 19-year-old sophomore at U.C. Berkeley, may provide the best illustration of how politics fits into campus life these days. "I'm sorry I am not real helpful right now. It's just that I've got a lab report due this afternoon and my lab partner is late. I'm a little nervous right now."