Last Wednesday night UNH was the host of a major political happening, a Republican Presidential Primary Debate. The event may have taken place on our campus, but the candidates failed to discuss the issues their student audience longed to hear about.
Journalists and political activists alike poured into the town "where U live" from all across the country to hear what the candidates would have to say about a variety of issues. After the debate, many polls asked viewers which candidates won or lost votes, and in a few more hours the town of Durham and its students were forgotten.
"I feel like UNH is unique because we're in the state where they hold the first primary," said UNH graduate student Anne Kirby, "and it's great that they held the debate here, but it feels like that's the reason the candidates really came to campus, not because they care about the issues important to college students."
John Hillis, a junior at UNH, echoed those sentiments, "People (the candidates) don't focus enough on college students. Yeah, they came here, but I didn't see any of them out involved on campus."
According to the Census Bureau, only 47% of U.S. citizens ages 18-24 turned out to vote in the 2004 presidential election. That demographic held the lowest turnout, compared to 73% of citizens ages 65-74 casting their ballots.
UNH junior, Aisling Maes, doesn't think the blame rests with the students alone. "It's too bad," says Maes "I think if they spent more time on our issues and showed us they cared it would help students to realize we can make a difference."
Doug Cole, a junior at UNH, agrees. "It comes from the low expectations that politicians have about student involvement. They look at the numbers that say only 30 percent of us go out to vote or whatever it is, and think that if they spend time campaigning on us, it will just go to waste on Election Day."
Travis King, a UNH senior, thinks that candidates could reach the student vote by listening to the youths' concerns.
"For once I wish they would talk about issues that affect college students," King said. "I watched the debate on TV last night and they never talked about things I was interested in hearing about like government funding for schools, alleviating the cost of college tuition, creating new jobs in the future, stuff that is relevant to your everyday student."
Fellow senior Anna Peterson, who attended the debate live, was also frustrated, "I was extremely disappointed, almost annoyed, that they talked about the same issues that they have established positions on when I was more interested in hearing about issues like whether states would finally get the special education funding they'd been promised."
The student vote may not be catered to by the political arena, but it could make the difference in the 2008 presidential election. George W. Bush defeated John Kerry in the popular vote by 3.1 million votes in 2004, while 9.86 million college students chose not to vote, according to the census.
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