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Subject: On Campus, a Fervor for the Democrats;Clinton Has Courted Student Vote
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 92 09:14:31 EST
Message-ID: <23.1992Nov1.091431@AmeriCast.com>

On Campus, a Fervor for the Democrats;Clinton Has Courted Student
Vote Previously Claimed by GOP<By Michael Abramowitz=Washington
Post Staff Writer= EAST LANSING, Mich. - When Ronald Reagan and
George Bush were chalking up landslides in the 1980s, they were
doing it with the help of young college students like Neely
Welch, 18, a Michigan State University freshman who's about to
cast her first presidential ballot. But now it's the 1990s, and
this once dependable component of the GOP coalition is dependable
no longer.

"I was Republican up until this election," said Welch, who is
studying environmental engineering. "But I'm definitely for Bill
Clinton now. I think Bill Clinton is very sincere, and George
Bush - he's full of it. I just don't like the way he says, 'I'm
going to do this, I'm going to do that.' Why didn't he do it the
first term?"

This pretty, tree-lined campus is not a bastion of elite liberal-
ism, a Berkeley or Madison. Professors and administrators say the
Michigan State student body was fairly conservative in the 1980s
and included many strong Reagan supporters.

But here and at other colleges and universities around the coun-
try, economic hard times have returned many students to the Demo-
cratic fold, recent polls suggest. Many of these students have
embraced the Clinton-Gore ticket with a fervor that has startled
even some of their more jaded elders. In East Lansing, for in-
stance, Clinton-Gore signs can be seen all over dormitories and
student apartments.

Since classes started this fall, student groups said they have
registered close to 10,000 new student voters, helping to swell
the voting rolls in the Lansing area to what Ingham County Clerk
Lingg Brewer says is the highest level in 16 years.  "I cannot
remember the same degree of excitement, interest and involvement
in a presidential campaign since the mid '70s," said Barbara C.
Steidle, an assistant provost at Michigan State. "There's a lot
of enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket."

Part of the excitement stems from the university's central role
in the campaign's ongoing debate saga this fall. The first debate
scheduled by the presidential debate commission was supposed to
be here, but after President Bush refused to accept the
commission's terms, Clinton came anyway for a late September ral-
ly that drew close to 10,000 people.

Clinton has appeared on college campuses more than 40 times since
the Democratic National Convention, part of what aides say is a
deliberate effort to energize the student vote. In fact, not
since the 1972 campaign of George McGovern has a presidential
candidate so assiduously reached out to students. Bush, by con-
trast, has visited less than a dozen campuses since the Republi-
can National Convention in August, according to his campaign.

When a presidential debate finally was held here Oct. 19, the
campus was electric with talk of little else but politics. A
thousand students volunteered to help. Although only a few hun-
dred students were given tickets to the event, several thousand
crowded an auditorium to watch the three candidates on giant
video screens and listen to a panel discussion.

Students could signal their preference by leaving the auditorium
through certain exits. Clinton won this unscientific balloting
with 773 votes, compared to 444 for Bush, 245 for independent
Ross Perot and some 600 who didn't vote at all.

Fueling the romance with the Clinton-Gore ticket here, as in the
rest of the country, is discontent with the economy. Many of
Michigan State's 40,000 graduate and undergraduate students have
mothers and fathers in the struggling auto industry. Many say
they are having trouble meeting tuition and book fees. And many
express anxiety about their job prospects after college.

"People are laying it all on George Bush's shoulders," said Cara
Chichowski, a senior pre-law student and leader of the student
government here.

"A lot of kids are getting scared that they're going to graduate
from college and not have an opportunity to work," said Michael
Shaffer, a 19-year-old sophomore from the small town of Edmore,
Mich.  "They've seen that happen under the Republicans. I guess
that when the Republican Party was attracting young people, it
was the opposite. There was an abundance of jobs."

There is also a sense that being for Clinton is seen as "cool"
this year, in the words of William Mulligan, the frustrated
president of Michigan State Republicans. The GOP's hard line on
abortion also seems to have turned off many young women, while
the alleged character flaws of Clinton, including his failure to
serve in Vietnam, are dismissed as irrelevant.

"I don't really blame him for not wanting to go to the war," said
Andrea Anderson, an 18-year-old freshman studying to be a veteri-
narian.  "I would have opposed it too."

Senior Derek Baad added: "Some of Clinton's personal life I don't
approve of, but a lot of leaders in the past also had problems
and did okay."

Bush retains pockets of support, especially among the 48 frater-
nities and sororities that draw much of their shrinking member-
ship from Michigan's wealthier enclaves. Many students inter-
viewed last week said they also were fascinated and even amused
by Perot, but not enough to offer him their votes.

Chichowski, who describes herself as "very undecided," said Clin-
ton may be promising too much, such as when he says he will pro-
vide increased student aid without specifying the sources of the
funds. "There are a lot of holes in his plan," she said. "But
people want change so badly that they're willing to overlook his
platform."<02:22 11-01C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)