Among Students, Nader Commands Limited Enthusiasm

Although Ralph Nader's presidential campaign explicitly targets college students as potential supporters, Harvard students have shown only moderate interest.

Tabling and postering by fans of the Green Party candidate have been somewhat effective in getting Nader's message out--but the response has not been as great as activists had hoped.

Perhaps a Tuesday visit by Nader to the ARCO Forum--which Institute of Politics staffers have said is a possibility--will turn things around for Nader supporters on campus.

"It was a very slow day today," lamented volunteer William D. Beuscher yesterday as the green-wearing Cambridge resident roamed Harvard Square by bicycle, distributing leaflets and talking to voters.

Beuscher, a middle-aged waiter, said he was around in 1969--when students took over University Hall to protest the Vietnam War--and is amazed at the difference 30 years makes.

"I felt that there was much more willingness [among students] to make it appear that they're involved," he said.

Now, Beuscher said, there is little visible evidence of activism on campus. Whether there is support for Nader beneath the surface that will translate into votes is anyone's guess.

Clifford Ginn, a first-year student at the law school and founder of the Law School Greens, said he believes there is.

"There is tremendous interest in Ralph Nader," Ginn said.

"Ralph Nader is someone people have heard of," agreed Amy C. Offner '01, a member of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM).

"It surprised me how much interest there is," she said.

But that interest has not translated into mobilization. Ginn has managed to recruit about 30 people for his pro-Nader group.

Of those, only about 10 are active members, estimated Steven H. Milder '04. And of that group, Milder guessed that he was one of only two or three undergraduates.

Upon arriving at Harvard, Milder trekked over to Nader's Somerville office to get a sign for his room. The staff set him up with Ginn's group and got him involved in the campaign, putting up signs and handing out flyers.

Milder, who hails from nearby Needham, expressed surprise that there were not more vocal Nader supporters on campus.

"I had heard a lot about Harvard being very liberal," he said.

"It seems like it's a hard-core Democratic campus, but it's not really hard-core liberal," he said. "People are not willing to make sacrifices and cross party lines."

Among the campus's most liberal activists, however, Nader does have many fans.

According to Offner, PSLM members have sold more than 40 tickets to Nader's upcoming rally at the Fleet Center. Many of these, she said, were hawked--at $10 a pop--in front of the Science Center.

PSLM also plans to set up a table at the Sunday event.

The ticket sales indicate there is some support for Nader on campus, despite the low participation in Ginn's group.

For instance, Shai M. Sachs '01, a former member of Harvard Students for Bill Bradley, said he is now on Nader's mailing list. Sachs follows the lead of Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West '74, a former Bradley advisor who now vocally supports Nader.