BC Looks to Up Political Involvement

This semester, in anticipation of Tuesday's elections, Barnard officials sent out a number of communications to students urging them to engage in the civic process.

Statements sent out to the student body by Dorothy Denburg, Barnard College dean, reflect the college's tendency to encourage its students as women to be actively engaged in the world around them.

Denburg sent two e-mails to Barnard students on voter registration. The first, sent on Sept. 11, contained instructions on how to register to vote, while the second, sent a month later, two days before New York's deadline to register for Tuesday's election, reiterated much of the first e-mail, focusing on the importance of Barnard voices in national elections.

"I think every single Barnard student needs to see herself as a participant in this democracy," Denburg said following the e-mails. "Women came late to the right to vote, but they have tended to take it seriously-they should take it seriously."

Many Barnard students took her up on the invitation. Several spent the weekend trying to get out the vote-almost half of the 38 students who participated in the College Democrats' Ohio canvassing trip were from Barnard.

Despite Denburg's e-mails, though, most Barnard students saw the election as secondary in their Election Day weekend plans. Janet Li, BC '08, said that she is registered in Los Angeles, but she would not be voting in this election.

"I'm not up on it," Li said. "If I were to vote, I'd make a really uneducated decision." Li added that out of all her friends, she is only aware of one who voted by absentee ballot.

In addition to encouraging students to get involved in governmental elections, Barnard officials also approached civic engagement with the launch of the Barnard Leadership Initiative. The program aims "to promote skills and theoretic understandings about leadership," according to Elizabeth Boylan, Barnard's provost. The program will address female leadership in several fields, though the public sector is one of its core focuses.

Barnard created this program in part because of America's lack of female elected leaders, according to Elizabeth Gildersleeve, Barnard's associate vice president of communications. Before Tuesday's elections, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives were dominated by men with women making up just 13 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

As an institution devoted to women's education, Denburg said that Barnard sees a personal imperative in filling the gap between female and male elected representation. "I want to see Barnard women caring enough to see themselves in [elected] roles in the years ahead," she said.

According to Will Simpkins, director of the Civic Engagement Program, Barnard students are already active leaders.

"Barnard has a really good track record of women playing really important roles in leadership," Simpkins said.

Yet Simpkins said he still sees the need for more women in elected positions so that the example can be set for others.

Martha Norrick, BC '07 and Spectator associate opinion editor, is one student who has already become part of the political process by serving on Community Board 9. Although Norrick said she believes it is important that women vote, she said she is more concerned with the lack of female candidates.

"I think Barnard's real responsibility in terms of getting people civically engaged is getting women to run for office," Norrick said. "They should hand you the diploma and say, 'Why don't you run for office?'"