Epitomized by the mass anti-Vietnam demonstrations on American college campuses in the 1960s and 1970s, political activism has long been the domain of the university sect.
"Right now seems to be a very quiet time [for activism], and I don't understand it," Professor Gary Goldstein said. "I think that there are plenty of issues that students can be quite worked up about."
Goldstein, a professor of physics and astronomy, is a member of the Tufts Coalition to Oppose War in Iraq (TCOWI) and currently focuses his activist efforts primarily against nuclear proliferation and the Iraq War.
Goldstein, in fact, says he sees more activism from professors.
"I think you find quite a lot of professors at Tufts who have done something active to oppose the war," Goldstein said.
"Among the students, I don't have the same sense that they are continuing to do something that contributes to this effort to end the war."
Tufts has a history of community participation in protests, including a peace march down Massachusetts Avenue against the First Gulf War in 1991 that began at Tufts and finished 1,000 strong in Government Center.
TCOWI, the university's only explicitly anti-war group, does not currently claim these sorts of numbers.
"Student activism is very important," Goldstein said. "I think people may disagree, but during the Vietnam days, the massive outpouring of student demonstrators week after week turned the course of history. You can have a lot of old politicos like me out there carrying signs, but unless you have hundreds of thousands of students, it doesn't matter."
Increasingly, Goldstein said, professors are involving themselves in off-campus efforts to express their political views, engaging in campaigning activities for anti-war Democrats, participating in demonstrations and working with anti-war Web sites such as MoveOn.org.
But where some see a decline in the student activist model, others see a new model of political change as part of a larger agenda within the framework of partisan politics.
"My sense is [that] there is a great deal of political concern amongst students," Professor of Education Kathleen Weiler said, who has done extensive research on democratic education.
"There's a lot of worry about the political direction of the country, for example-or the world."
Accordingly, students' concerns about the war may be more liable to help get anti-war politicians elected, rather than picketing themselves.
"An online petition, marching, what does that do?" Weiler said. "It seems that nothing is going to influence the government except ... voting. You have to work within the electoral system."
Kayt Norris, president of the Tufts Democrats, also described a different formula for successful political activism today: a synthesis of electoral politics, issue advocacy, and community service groups.
"You need those three different areas, and those three different types of students," Norris said.
"Nobody knows the issues more intimately than those students who are in issue advocacy groups, because they are aware of various policy nuances. And then of course nothing gets done in this country unless you have a knowledge of electoral politics."
"I see this upcoming election as extremely crucial," Weiler said.
"Both the Tufts [Democrats] and the Tufts Republicans should be mobilizing around what they want that election to mean."
The Democrats hosted a panel on the Iraq war last night, although members of TCOWI were tabling outside the event.
Yet even with an informed student body, the ambiguity associated with the war leaves students at a loss for exactly how to respond.
"We understand that the issue is far more complex than [being] for [the war] or against," Norris said.
"There is a lot of divergence on the issues and potential policies even within one party, and it's really hard to get mobilized around an issue when you don't know what you're advocating for specifically."
Yet some wish for greater passion and urgency for the anti-war cause itself.
"I think what's lacking-and I put a lot of emphasis on the media for doing this-is a human connection," Goldstein said.
"When I said, '650,000 people,' that's just a number. But if we at Tufts have a human connection to people whose lives are in jeopardy in Iraq, that's quite different."
But for every student who is politically savvy, is there another who is just lazy?
The numbers don't suggest that a massive percentage of the student body is involved in political efforts. According to sophomore Amy Rabinowitz, the treasurer for the Tufts Republicans, there are ten to 25 active Tufts Republicans in a list of 50, and Norris cited around 50 active Democrats on a list of over 800.
"If anything, not everyone is politically active," Rabinowitz said. "We have a fewer amount of students who are active, but they are very, very active. That's the only limitation."
But numbers of active members may not be an entirely accurate reflection of the level of student activism.
Students may be contributing to public affairs in other ways: through one of Tufts' issue organizations, such as its Energy Security Initiative, volunteerism, or with off-campus political work.
That is, at least for now. "In the long time that I've been here, I've seen a lot of activism on campus, and then not very much," Goldstein said. "It comes and goes."
