Last year, 142 members of the Class of 2011 majored in government, representing about 13 percent of all graduates, according to the Office of Institutional Research. From this fact alone, a Dartmouth outsider might reasonably imagine that students here engage in political discussion on a regular basis, perhaps even staying up all night to debate the issues they're passionate about.
Such an image, however, is more a fantasy than a reality of the Dartmouth experience. Students voluntarily engage in heated discussions about politics only rarely, if at all. What seems like such a classic part of a college experience to explore and discuss political ideas, to challenge each other and form new beliefs seems to be missing for many students here.
Several programs at Dartmouth attempt to foster an interest in political discussion on campus from the Great Issues lecture series to the First Year Fellows program in Washington, D.C. yet Dartmouth students often lack the enthusiasm to carry out political discussion on a day-to-day basis. Many students agree that the majority of students on campus are rather apathetic about political issues.
Caught in the Dartmouth bubble, students rarely seem to mix their political views with their social lives, according to Uti Agarwal '13.
"[Political discussion] just doesn't fit the basement talk' and unfortunately that's a big chuck of our social interactions on campus," Agarwal said.
The lack of political discourse may be attributed in part to students' fear of engaging in contentious discussion when it's not necessary.
"We like to avoid conflict," Agarwal said. "We lack the capital the confidence to own up to our ideas and opinions and be authentic to ourselves. What most of us don't realize is that there are many ways of having such contentious conversations without ending up in a confrontation."
Indeed, contentious debate is not necessarily the norm, but perhaps that is due to a general agreement among students rather than an avoidance of conflict.
"People ages 18 to 22 tend to be pretty liberal on social issues," Trevor Chenoweth '12, a double major in economics and government, said. "Because we're college students and we all tend to align on certain issues, it's usually more nuanced. You could even argue that [campus discussion] is more in depth but it's less divided or fiery."
Other students perceive a community-wide expectation of what we "should" believe, more in line with the College's relatively conservative reputation.
"On some issues, there is a perception that there's a right answer, depending on your group or who you're with," according to a female '12, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of her opinion. "Day-to-day I don't think it's a very popular opinion on campus that it's okay for homosexuals to get married, and so I do think there's this perception of a right answer.'"
At the same time, the female '12 is also familiar with quick judgments by others about more conservative political leanings.
"I was here in the '08 election and I had a McCain button on my backpack," she said. "My current best friend, who didn't know me at the time, jokes that as soon as she saw me in class, she was like, How could we ever be friends?' There are a lot of snap judgments like that on campus.
Many incoming freshmen from other parts of the country feel similarly hesitant about expressing their political views, as they are unsure of the "right" beliefs on campus.
"I've grown up in the South all my life, so I don't know what the traditional opinions are here," Luben Ikonomov '15 said. "Sometimes it's best to not say a lot or even comment on something, just because you don't know how people in this new location will react."
For some, the fear of judgment for expressing an opinion can be so pervasive that it prevents them from sharing ideas, even when such discussion is encouraged. Rohail Premjee '14 said that his close friends openly discuss their political beliefs amongst each other but are less "honest" in the classroom.
"I've taken six [government] classes, and the amount of political talk is not nearly as high when you're in a personal setting, because people are afraid of what [other students] are going to think of them," Premjee said.
Certainly not everyone is completely disengaged from political discussion, especially when the discourse is more informal and friendly.
"I think that at Dartmouth maybe people aren't as militant about their political views, but they're still discussed often," Chenoweth said. "It's really informal. No one really digs in on a position, but it's much more a discussion about what's this topic about, and in generalities what do you think about it."
Brandon Debott '14, a government major and public policy minor, agreed, explaining some students' hesitance to debate hot-button issues as only natural.
"I think we're a pretty open campus [where] most kids usually express how they feel pretty straight up, as long as it's a well articulated and balanced opinion," Debott said. "Some kids might just stay silent depending on the crowd they're in, if they feel they're going to upset someone, but that's the same as any other discussion."
Some '15s have found time to engage in such discussion, even amidst the endless chatter of learning (and forgetting) the faces, names, hometowns and dorms of a million equally confused randos. Ikonomov, for example, took the time to watch and discuss a two-hour political debate with two of his friends.
"Discussing the issues that the candidate was talking about is a really good to broaden your horizon," he said.
Sometimes it takes some time to find other students with whom to have such political discussions, however.
"I can't think of a single politically engaged discussion I've had with my pre-med friends," said the '12 female, aluding to her government major and public policy minor.
Chenoweth said he discusses politics with friends who have already expressed an interest in, and capacity for, such subjects.
"It's the selection effect, where people who choose government are more interested [in politics] and so they inform themselves more and talk about it more," Chenoweth said. "I'd have to say that people that I talk to about politics tend to be good friends of mine, other members of the debate team, people I know from gov and econ classes or [other] First Year Fellows."
Chenoweth said that he does not usually have such politically driven conversations with acquaintances.
The Dartmouth bubble's general blinders to such national issues isn't necessarily unique to Dartmouth or to isolated campuses in general.
"I think Dartmouth does a pretty good job of bringing political issues to campus," Chenoweth said. "When I was considering colleges, I was worried that Dartmouth was in the middle of nowhere, but we bring important people here all the time."
The GOP presidential primary debate, New York City's mayor Michael Bloomberg and even Conan O'Brien are just a few examples.
Whether Dartmouth students are engaged in politics or not, everyone seems to get out of it what they want just as with any part of the college experience. Dartmouth gives us the resources, but it's up to us to decide what we want to do with them.
"I get what I'm looking for, and I think other kids have similar experiences," DeBott said. "If you're apolitical you can avoid it pretty well, and if you're involved in it you can find as much as you want."
