As we enter the last few weeks of presidential campaigning, the political scene has become increasingly fired up and every last detail of each candidate's position has been examined. So-called "Spin Alley" has become the essential ingredient in the 2004 race as each party fights to destroy the other, and most voters by this point have already decided who they will choose on November 2.
The spin placed on each word of every campaign-related item is directed primarily at the powerful group of swing voters who remain unsure. How informed are these swing voters? Can they be relied upon to find the truth in such a convoluted race and decide on the right candidate? With dishonesty floating freely, how can one expect the election to be fair?
The ultimate question is whether Tufts students are informed as we claim to be. The University is known for its powerful international relations department and for its students' political activism, and out of 25 informally polled students, 15 said that they consider themselves well-informed about politics.
Only eight of those well-informed students read the newspaper every day, and most students surveyed admitted that they are not as informed as they think they should be.
"In general, if people don't know, it's because they don't care," sophomore Casey Beck said.
When asked if they feel as though they are better informed than the average person in the rest of the country, students tended to say yes: 17 of the 25 polled said that they believe they are better informed.
Other students were either unsure or felt relatively uninformed. The students polled, for the most part, do not have much faith in the general public's knowledge of current events, and some may feel as though this makes the presidential election frustrating.
Compared to the rest of the Tufts student body, though, most students said that they are equally as informed; only one student said he believe he was more aware of current events than others.
Still others said that they find themselves below the average on campus. "I'm not completely in the dark, but in comparison to other kids at Tufts, I'm definitely not well informed," freshman Christina Saldarriaga said.
freshman Devra Bergman summed up the general sentiment of most interviewed students: "I meet some people, like the people on the Tufts campus, who just seem like they really know what they are talking about," she said. "But there are also a lot of people that I encounter that really don't know much about what's going on in our country."
This perceived ignorance worries some voters as they contemplate the effectiveness of their own vote.
On the international front, some students consider their fellow Jumbos less knowledgeable than they should be. "Students have an idea [of international affairs], but it only touches the surface," Beck said.
"We're informed but our analysis is probably superficial," sophomore Sebastian Chaskel agreed.
Other students, however, said that some of the lack of awareness on campus is bound to happen. While students are here, "they're in a rarefied environment. We have to make an effort to bring news in," sophomore Allie Bohm said.
Fortunately, according to Beck, "people aren't afraid to learn" when they are not well-versed.
Students have several different explanations for their lack of knowledge. "Sometimes I choose to be ignorant because I don't know how to deal with the reality," sophomore Jeanine Cerundolo said.
Freshman Alex Kobzik said that he gets the little news he hears mostly by word of mouth. "I don't have a TV, don't really have time to look at the paper, don't have a radio," Kobzik said. "I'm really kind of shut off."
Students do recognize their own responsibility in being knowledgeable.
"You're as informed as you want to be," Cerundolo said.
As far as the political frenzy surrounding the election, sophomore Mike Abare said, "It's every student's duty to learn as much as possible to make the best decisions they can."
