Chronicle of Higher Education
12-12-07
Students in Iowa Defend Their Right to Caucus
As students in Iowa gear up for next month’s presidential caucuses, they are
denouncing some candidates’ suggestions that students from out of state not
participate. (Christopher J. Dodd and Hillary Rodham Clinton have criticized
Barack Obama, the leading Democrat among young voters, for urging out-ofstate students to return to their campuses in Iowa to caucus.)
“To say that students who didn’t grow up in Iowa, but who now live here,
shouldn’t have the choice to participate in the caucuses is blatant voter
disenfranchisement,” representatives from Drake University, Iowa State
University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Northern Iowa said in a
written statement issued this week by the Iowa Student Public Interest Research
Group.
“We live here in Iowa for the majority of the year and make our homes here; we
are active participants in our communities — volunteering, giving back and
contributing intellectual and financial resources to the state,” the students said.
“We have been working hard to encourage our peers to be active participants in
their democracy because college students and young people should be more
involved in politics.”
The statement, signed by 22 students, urged candidates to “actively seek us out
and engage us on the issues we care about.” Many students in Iowa plan to
return to their campuses early to take part in the caucuses.