Political action

In the late spring, this board published an editorial urging the administration to accept the request of student groups like the College Democrats and College Republicans that they be allowed to register voters on campus. The reason behind the University's previous policy against such activity was a strict interpretation of its obligation as a nonprofit organization to avoid supporting partisan political activity. After some student advocacy and a long-overdue reconsideration of its legal obligations, the administration ultimately moved to allow voter registration on campus.

Since that time, various groups have been authorized to register voters and registration overall is proceeding rapidly thanks in large part to the organizing work and energy of the nonpartisan and University-funded P-Votes effort. Having registered more than 600 college voters so far, P-Votes is planning to cast a campus-wide net for registration and scale up its campaign to get out the vote over the next two weeks.

Organized political action on campus has surged more broadly. College Democrat and College Republican meetings have attracted a deluge of interested students — as opposed to the traditional trickle — and these groups and others have also begun ambitious planning for fall-break campaign work in battleground states.

Elsewhere on a campus known as anything but activist, more spontaneous signs of political sentiment have crept into sight this September. A Bush poster adorns a dorm window here; the shirt of a passerby reading "Re-defeat Bush in 2004" makes its pointed rebuttal.

The subtle, but steady eruption of arguments over dinner tables or between classes also testifies to the presence of Nader enthusiasts, and others less than enchanted with mainstream politics. As students discuss fall break plans, vocabulary like "battleground state" and "canvassing" has supplanted last year's "London" or "boozing."

Much of the outpouring of politicized conversation, posters, stickers, buttons and clothing is organic. Some is less so. Thanks to the responsiveness of the Projects Board, parallel calls by College Democrats and Republicans for money to buy and distribute campaign posters and paraphernalia have been answered, with each group receiving several hundred dollars. Watch out for a life-size John F. Kerry cutout.

Princeton, for once, feels a little bit politicized. A good thing? With the exception of any damage to friendships caused by different degrees of affection for Bush foreign policy, or the occasional stifling of healthy political differences in the classroom by overzealous professors, probably. At least it's a refreshing break from the political lethargy that usually grips this campus. There are bigger things in the world than our resumes, after all.