Stumping for youth

VP's daughter campaigns on MSU campus

By Yael Kohen

Daily Staff Reporter

EAST LANSING - The roped-off empty seats and band of students on stage could hardly get a cheer out of the crowd of almost 300 people yesterday as Karenna Gore-Schiff visited Michigan State University to advocate the importance young voters in the political process.

Gore-Schiff, the oldest daughter of Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, came to Michigan State Auditorium yesterday to emphasize the changes young adults would be able to make merely because of the large numbers of people in their age group.

"We must face the fact that our action or inaction will have profound consequences on all of our lives," Gore-Schiff said to the crowd.

But in a school with more than 40,000 students, turnout seemed low with only about 300 in attendance.

"Well the thing is that I don't really expect young people to show up at political events because so many young people are turned off to politics and want nothing to do with it," Gore-Schiff said after the event.

"But I think that just making the effort to say that we're reaching out, we respect their voices, we want to hear from them and we want to talk with them is important," she said, "and hopefully down the line it will make a difference."

Gore-Schiff heads GoreNet, a network for 18- to 24-year-olds to gather political information.

"The pundits say that we are apathetic and our generation has been dismissed as being too self involved to deal with public life," she said.

"It is easy to underestimate the impact of elections on our lives," she said. "It's true that all of our lives are affected profoundly - our dreams, our relationships, our very family experiences take shape with the support or break under the pressure of a thousand politicians' decisions."

Some students present at yesterday's rally said they were frustrated

with their peer's disinterest in presidential politics.

"Everybody complains about the government but no one will take the 10 seconds it takes to fill out a voter registration form," Michigan State junior Janelle Wilhelm said. Wilhelm said although she is leaning towards supporting Gore, she is still undecided and came to the rally to learn more about the Democratic candidate.

"If you feel alienated by the government you should do something about it," she said. "I'm really disappointed with students. We have a campus of 43,000, and this is all we get."

Members of Michigan State's College Democrats, who organized yesterday's rally, said they were pleased with the number of students who came, despite their inability to advertise further in advance because of the campaign stop's short notice.

Michigan State sophomore Emily Stivers, a member of College Democrats, said many students were held up in classes and unable to attend the event.

"If these people get energized enough by this speech, then they'll tell their friends," Stivers said.

Yesterday's stop was one of several stops at colleges and universities to promote election turnout. Gore-Schiff was accompanied by other state Democrats as well as vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman's daughter Rebecca and Todd Stabenow, son of U.S. Senate candidate Debbie Stabenow.

After leaving East Lansing, Gore-Schiff stopped at the University of Wisconsin at Madison for an "At the Table" discussion with students who want to express their concerns with the political system. She also is scheduled to visit the University of Missouri and Southern Illinois University this week.

NORMAN NG/Daily

Karenna Gore-Schiff, daughter of Vice President Al Gore, mingles with students at Michigan State Auditorium after addressing the crowd on the importance of student political participation.