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Also: Reactivating Activism and On the Town
Signs of the times. From left: MTV bus and voter registration table; Steve Mitby '99, and Travis Wheatley '99 (holding Dole sign); Elizabeth Kanter '99; Dionne Fraser '99. Photographs by Mark Halevi
Forget adversaries and protests. Harvard's Institute of Politics (IOP) knows
that the best way to awaken an undergraduate's social consciousness is food,
fun, and fame. On Saturday, September 21, the IOP and a coalition of 28
student organizations sponsored Harvard Youth for Political Empowerment
(HYPE), a festival of student activists, local bands, and notable political
figures. Throughout a sweltering autumn afternoon, in the quadrangle next
to the Malkin Athletic Center, students registered to vote, rallied, and
eventually played hacky-sack during speeches by U.S. Representative Barney
Frank '61, J.D. '77, presidential adviser George Stephanopoulos, and Teresa
Heinz and Susan (Roosevelt) Weld '70, J.D. '74, the wives of the rival U.S.
Senatorial candidates in Massachusetts, Democratic incumbent John Kerry
and Republican challenger (and governor) William Weld '66, J.D. '70. Meanwhile,
around the perimeter of the quad, student groups ranging from the Harvard
Republican Alliance to Haitian Alliance to UNITE tabled voraciously while
celebrities such as Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and MTV's get-out-the-vote
Choose or Lose crew worked the crowd.
HYPE "went even better than I had expected," proclaimed Avery
Gardiner '97, who chairs the IOP Student Advisory Committee. Information-table
volunteers from both the left and the right generally shared Gardiner's
optimistic appraisal of the day, although several in the Republican Alliance
sensed a strong liberal bias in the air. "A lot of these speakers are
saying 'Get out the vote...and vote Democratic,'" deadpanned Travis
Wheatley '99, a Republican student who participated in one of HYPE's three
open-mike debates. Indeed, only a few forlorn Dole-Kemp signs appeared amid
the rambunctious crowd of Clintonians. "Then again," remarked
John Appelbaum '97, "it's a Democratic state and a liberal college.
What do you expect?"
Although most students seemed enthusiastic about the day, at least one cynic
didn't believe the HYPE. "It's apathy tempered by free soda,"
noted Rob Hagan '98. "Here you have an excellent metaphor for political
activism at Harvard: while Teresa Heinz is speaking on stage, you have 11
guys going ape on the moonwalk."
~ K.C.M.
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