Tonight they may be found sitting on couches, eyes trained on televisions as election results trickle in. But the Tufts Republicans have been anything but immobile over the past few months, according to sophomore Michael Hawley, the group's president.
"We've been phone-banking all over -- in Boston, in New Hampshire and on campus," he said. "Ten or 12 of us have taken a couple of trips up to New Hampshire to ask people how they are voting and get out the vote."
In addition to campaigning for Sen. John McCain, members of the Tufts Republicans faced off against representatives from the Tufts Democrats in a debate earlier in the month. This has been followed by a series of smaller radio debates featured on WMFO.
When they were not debating against them, the Tufts Republicans teamed up with the Democrats for a bipartisan voter-registration campaign on campus.
Still, Hawley said the Tufts Republicans have focused most of their campaigning efforts on supporting the McCain-Palin ticket.
"We have not done much in the way of non-partisan, get-out-the-vote campaigning," Hawley said. "We've decided that we want to get out the vote, but more importantly, we want to get out the Republican vote."
President of Tufts for McCain Antonella Scarano, a senior, has also been busy this campaigning season. Tufts for McCain is a subset of the Tufts Republicans.
"The past two weekends we've been knocking on doors in New Hampshire supporting McCain," Scarano said. "In terms of the next 24 hours, a group of us will be phone-banking during the day and then participating in [the] 'Election Extravaganza' at night."
The Extravaganza, an election results-watching party sponsored by the Experimental College, will include speeches by Tufts students and faculty about incoming results. The Tufts Republicans, who Hawley says have 25 active members, will set up a table at tonight's event.
Tufts Republicans Treasurer Chas Morrison, a sophomore, said that he is looking forward to emceeing part of tonight's Extravaganza with classmate Sam Wallis, a member of the Tufts Democrats. Morrison, Wallis and Scarano all serve on the Tufts Community Union Senate.
McCain significantly trails Sen. Barack Obama in most national polls, but Morrison anticipates a suspenseful situation tonight.
"It's going to be an exciting evening because no matter where the election goes, it's going to be very close," he said. "These things have a way of bucking expectations."
Last month, The Chronicle of Higher Education released a survey saying that college professors are eight times more likely to vote for Obama than for McCain. Morrison said that he is not surprised by these findings.
"Because a lot of current professors came of age during the Vietnam War, it's no secret that academia leans towards the left," he said. "However, there is a problem when higher education is dominated almost exclusively by one political ideology. I wish that there was more of a dialogue."
Morrison added that despite a lack of political balance in the classroom, he has found that most Tufts students "are still open to listening to alternative ideas" and has not felt unwanted pressure to vote Democratic.
Like Morrison, Hawley said that he has not experienced pressure to change his vote.
"I had a McCain sign on my door ripped down, but besides juvenile stuff, I don't think that there is any aggressive peer pressure," Hawley said. "I don't feel any effective pressure to vote in other directions."
But he said that he understands why other McCain supporters at Tufts may feel less secure with their political choice.
"While I'm personally secure enough in my position, I would expect that less-partisan students may feel more pressured in class," he said.
