Michael Roth wrote his third column for the Huffington Post this past Friday. In the blog, Roth praises Wes students’ activism this election season.
In these last days before the election, many thousands of college students across the country are heading off-campus to work for candidates who they think will make a difference in their lives and in the lives of their fellow-citizens. […]
Barack Obama has generated enormous excitement among young people across the country. As adolescent cynicism has given way to a deep hope for change, students are expressing their faith in the electoral system in the old fashioned way: they are participating in it. On my own campus, Wesleyan University, this engagement in electoral politics has energized student and faculty life in powerful ways. Wesleyan has long been known as a progressive school in which students often express strong views about the importance of social justice. When Senator Obama gave the Commencement Address in the spring, he lit up the campus with his energy and gravitas, with his commitment to public service and with his call to students to take responsibility for the public sphere. […]
At Wesleyan I often say that education isn’t about watching other people do the research, it’s about doing that work oneself. This election cycle is a key part of our students’ political education because they aren’t spectators. They are taking responsibility for the work of politics themselves. This is good for their education – and for our future.
Wesleyan currently boasts 13 pages of hits on the site, while Amherst only has 9. Go Wes!
Huffington Post: Participation as Education