Professors, Youth Voters, and Election Day

For me the second-worst part of Wednesday night's Obama-McCain debate was realizing that my guy was never going to tear into his opponent, never even going to break a sweat as he explained good policy after good policy. Ok, I figured, he and his campaign must know what they're doing, since it sure seems to be working so far. I may find the debates disappointing, but what voters think matters more than what I want. Fair enough.

The worst part came in the post-debate commentary, when pundit after pundit described Obama as "professorial," by which they meant wonkish, unemotional, dry, long-winded, and dull. A snore. Ouch! Look, I know that describes some professors, maybe even a lot of us, but if my classroom demeanor resembled Barack Obama's Wednesday night, I would have been bounced from academia in my first couple of years. Most of us aren't protecting leads in the classroom, waiting for our students to burst out with nutty assertions, such as "ACORN is perpetuating one of the great electoral frauds in American history." (What about voter suppression under Jim Crow, or the shenanigans of political machines in Chicago, New York City, and Long Island, just to pick a few famous examples?)

We cannot count on our students' interest, so we do everything we can think of to engage them. We get them talking and writing; we use their own experiences to get them to think about people in the past; we get in their faces and make them uncomfortable and show them how their ideas matter. We can't afford dispassionate analysis. Students need to see passion and excitement and engagement from their professors -- otherwise why should they care about the subject?

But the story I really want to tell came in my First Year Seminar yesterday, a class at the University of Hartford devoted to the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. Students wanted to talk about whether we were having class on Election Day -- the first time in my 20-year teaching career the question has come up. So I asked about their plans for voting. And here's what I found.

Fifteen of the sixteen students are registered. (One is too young.) Five already had received their absentee ballots. Every single one of the others had already made plans to go home (to Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, or Connecticut), or to vote in Hartford. Every one. In the five previous presidential elections, that number has only once (in 2004) gone higher than 50%. I'm going way out on a limb, and predict a youth vote tsunami.

As the import of what they were telling me began to sink in, I was at first speechless; then moved almost to tears. I told them they had given me a great gift. I was getting to see social change happen right before my eyes, in my little corner of the educational universe. And I was deeply grateful. Not "professorial."

Comments

[jnelson522]

Warren, that's encouraging. Well told, too.

(Hey, you think getting called "professorial" is bad -- how about "preacherly"?)

[BonzaiBoy]

I too am extremely hopeful that youth voter turnout will far exceed any and all expectations this year. I've been volunteering with the Obama for America office in my city since the beginning of the summer, and it was astounding to see the number of youth involved. The office had 36 student interns, many of whom aren't even old enough to vote and won't be old enough in time for Nov. 4. These students EACH volunteered approx. 20 hours of their time per week, doing things ranging from canvassing and phone banking to representing Obama's campaign at the local gay pride parade.

With this kind of dedication--a level of which I haven't seen in my relatively short lifetime (I'm in my 30's)--I can't help but believe that this year is unique. We will see voter turnout among key groups in ways not seen in recent years (or perhaps ever), and with it--hopefully--a win for Obama.

[JRsNana]

This is very encouraging. We are going to need all those votes just to overcome the GOP's attempts to steal this election. Numbers, huge numbers, will be the only way to, hopefully, counteract their malicious intent.

[darcy]

My community college students are so enthusiastic about voting for Obama that they keep bringing it up no matter what's going on in class. I've never seen anything like it. They absolutely understand the issues and the fact that the bushies have rammed through policies that are hurting them personally.

I am ecstatic!

[demfriend]

I am hoping that every single person who is registered can and will vote this year. That the attempts by the GOP to suppress the votes areno secret is a scary thing to me as I would believe anyone who loves this country and the Constitution/Bill of Rights and all that should want the procss to work for the country and not for only one party. The youth vote might be the "decider" this year and I would love to see it as these are the people who will be making the gov work for the next decades ahead and should have a say in it. It has been a long time since the youth have been engaged so much in what is happening around them and I am glad to see it. So take a friend, a neighbor, a relative to vote with you and vote early as you can in so many states. Get it done and make your vote count. Thank you ahead of tme for your vote as we can change America together.

[fyi08]

I'm holding my breath for the youth vote. I hope they come through this time.

[blaqntelligence]

Thank you for that.
I think the youth vote is going to change this election in ways that will be studied for years.
Those young folks haven't worked this hard, made the sacrifices we've all heard of them making, hoped, prayed, cried, been insulted and frightened.... Just to stay home on election day?!?!?
I don't believe it.