The College Fix

At the State University of New York, Purchase, the backing of President Obama and his policies is evident. All you have to do is follow the money. According to OpenSecrets.com, a website run by The Center for Responsive Politics and dedicated to unearthing and making public the financial benefactors of politicians, $1,450 was donated to politicians by employees of the university. Of that total, $1,200 was given to candidate Barack Obama in the past year. No money was directed to Mr. Romney or any GOP related group.

As Election Day approaches, the presidential candidates are spending the bulk of their time wooing a small percentage of undecided voters in swing states. However, some states are getting far less attention from the candidates. These states are the dependable ones, the states that both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have nailed down safely in their respective columns as they race to November 6^th.

For Mr. Obama, there are few liberal bastions more safely in his corner than New York State.  The New York Times has the chance of Mr. Obama winning New York at “100 percent”. On it’s election map the Times claims the odds that the state of New York will be prove “decisive” in the presidential race are “0.1” percent.

Within the Democratic-leaning stronghold of New York, the friendliest ground for the president’s campaign may well be on the campus of the State University of New York, Purchase, where political support for Democratic politicians, and general distaste for conservative politicians is ubiquitous. Purchase students are ready to head to the polls to keep Mr. Obama in office.

It is increasingly common for college students with liberal political leanings to outnumber conservatives in universities across America, with liberal policies often entrenched in the fabric of university administration and course offerings. According to the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, a program affiliated with UCLA, incoming freshmen in 2012 have “ decidedly more liberal views” than previous years.

Purchase College, with it’s slogan “Think Wide Open”, prides itself in diversity and as it’s official website claims is home to students and professors who are “active culture generators”. For a campus filled with students maintaining “open minds,” there is relatively little political diversity. The “open minds” seem to translate into a narrow and rarely straying, dependable, voting bloc for Mr. Obama and his fellow Democrats.

But student support for Mr. Obama has not reached the level of enthusiasm this year that it did during the 2008 campaign. The magical feeling of “Hope & Change” is no longer evident. Students who support Obama are doing so with less enthusiasm.

Robert Turner, a SUNY Purchase student government officer, mounted a one-word reply when asked who he would be voting for, “Obama.” When pressed as to why he would turn out for the incumbent he opined, “He is the better guy.”

Another student, Isabella Sosa, echoed sentiments that can be heard almost every time elections are near. Ms. Sosa said, “Obama is the lesser of two evils.”

Obama’s student supporters are not so much pro-Obama as they are anti-Romney.  A student, who asked to remain nameless, said she doesn’t trust Romney and Ryan, and believes “they aren’t open to finding common ground on big issues.”

Almost all colleges experience a ‘get out the vote’ effort during election season. Purchase’s equivalent effort, dubbed “Rave the Vote” is led by Associate Dean of Student Affairs, John Delate. Mr. Delate, while refusing to reveal which candidate he supports, responded to an email regarding this article saying, saying that he hopes “students and other community members will take the time to exercise our important constitutional right to vote.”

Purchase College will hold no classes on Election Day as voters across the nation head to the polls. The outcome may hinge a few votes in a few contested states. But here at SUNY Purchase the outcome seems little in doubt—since Democrats received the lion’s share of political donations from university employees, and Republicans received none, it seems clear that the professors and administrators here have their minds made up in favor of Obama.

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