Staff Editorial: Gutmann should re-politicize Penn

President Gutmann, today is your first day on the job, and we at The Summer Pennsylvanian welcome you to Penn. You clearly face many new responsibilities as president: filling a slate of positions from provost down, developing the postal lands, creating a fundraising strategy to do so, building upon the Rodin legacy, and leaving a mark of your own on this university. However, in looking forward at your new presidential responsibilities, we hope that you reflect back on your academic career as a political scientist studying political participation.

Political discourse on our campus is impoverished. While the low rate of under-30 voter turnout is a widely-recognized phenomenon, the reality of this fact is manifest on Penn's campus, not only in terms of voting but in all forms of political participation.

As a political scientist, you have explored the importance of deliberation in our democracy. Now, as President, you can put theory into action. We offer five concrete steps that your administration can take to increase student political participation:

1. Encourage students to register and vote. Hand out voter registration forms in college house move-in packets, have residential advisors aid students in registering and collect the forms, and front the postage to send the forms in. Additionally, to better enable students to make it to the polls, make November 2 free from exams, quizzes, and papers.

2. Bring political speakers to campus. It is not only important that the Penn community should vote, but also that our decisions are informed ones. Allocate more money to bring political speakers to campus, especially in the two months before the election

3. Fund political speech. Current Student Activities Council rules state, "A student activity or program that is designed to support or oppose a particular party or candidate or to influence legislation will not be funded." This not only includes the College Republicans and Democrats, but also issue advocacy groups like Penn for Choice and Penn for Life. Create a new University organ to which these groups can submit budgets and receive funding in order to promote political speech on Penn's campus.

4. Allow political flyering. A long-standing tradition at Penn is to promote campus events by distributing flyers -- known as quarter-sheets for their size -- under dorm room doors, but recently College Houses cracked down and starting fining for this practice. Lift this ban for political and issue-advocacy groups so that political events can be promoted, at least in the two months of classes before the election.

5. Improve the political sciences. While the department at Penn is certainly no longer the standing campus joke it once was, it still pales in comparison to many other departments. Spend more money and more time recruiting for the Political Science department and Fels Institute of Government to increase not only the quantity but also the caliber of political discourse on campus.

President Gutmann, as a scholar of politics you surely recognize the need for greater political participation, especially among our younger generation. As a university president, you can help make the ideal of engaged citizenship a reality here at Penn.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.