The Daily Orange News AnalysisIt provides insight into important news events while focusing on the background, context and future of the situation. The article is influenced by the writer’s understanding, reporting and familiarity with the subject matter, but does not contain any personal opinions.

Student leaders of the anti-war movement could not ask national politicians for better circumstances to spur their recruiting efforts.

The Iraq war recently turned four years old as President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress have continued to entrench themselves in a fierce debate about the conflict’s future.

And on the Syracuse University campus, the long-sought and often criticized student anti-war movement has shown signs that it may finally be gaining the momentum it has longed lacked.

‘I think recently there has been a new energy,’ said Anna Hadingham, president of the Student Peace Action Network (SPAN), an SU student fee-financed amnesty group that has led two anti-Iraq war protests this semester. ‘There is more of a mainstream awareness’ of student activism developing.

SPAN recently acknowledged the war’s fourth anniversary with a demonstration on the Quad, and though brief, it marked one of the few examples of students gathering in sizeable numbers to demonstrate disapproval of the war.

Both on campus and downtown, activist groups mobilized their ranks in the days surrounding the war’s March 20 anniversary, yet it remains uncertain whether today’s college generation can meet the expectations set by the anti-Vietnam War movement of the 1960s.

‘As long as there is no draft, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell they are going to get involved,’ said Bill Coplin, of the greater student body. Coplin is the director of the public affairs program at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

‘I don’t see the students organizing,’ he said.

Coplin has found that when activist groups gather to protest, it is chiefly due to the efforts of the organizers. They are the ones who arrange the demonstrations and their circles who participate. Otherwise, these leaders face traction in generating the numbers necessary to make their position known.

As one of the campus’ most influential organizers, Hadingham acknowledges the lack of results from her five years of protesting.

‘I feel better knowing I’m doing something,’ she said, ‘even if there are no tangible results.’ She added that a lot more students must get involved if a new youth movement is to emerge.

Hadingham doesn’t rely on the American political system to take action. We ‘can’t rely on our senators,’ she said. ‘We have to do the work ourselves.’

Yet it is Congress that is developing the most potent opportunity for an increase in activism. Both the House and Senate passed funding bills with withdrawal deadlines attached. And the Bush White House has taken a strong stance saying the president would veto any such bill. These positions have pitted the executive against Congress and could prove to be an ample opportunity for activists to highlight their cause.

Despite the skepticism whether politics can end the war, junior Marshall Henry is attempting to petition local representatives.

Henry is a member of SPAN who sat behind a table in Schine Student Center on April 3. He asked his peers to sign a petition that will be presented to local Congressman Jim Walsh today asking for immediate action on the Iraq war.

‘People are becoming more interested,’ said Henry, music industry major. ‘They see the war is going on and on, with no end in sight.’

There was another point earlier this semester where the cosmos also seemed to align for anti-war activists.

After a monumental defeat of the Republicans in the midterm elections and a broad consensus that the management of the war shaped voter’s decisions, the White House held the nation in suspense with the promise of a presidential address on the war. Then Bush appeared from the White House library and announced an increase of more than 20,000 troops to the region.

While the troops surged, the protests did not.

There have been two student protests on campus this semester and one in Washington, D.C., in which a bus of SU students attended a rally in the nation’s Capitol.

Some have suggested that today’s youth generation is too focused on grades, school work and extracurricular activities to actively engage themselves in political movements.

Coplin, known on campus for his close interaction with the students in his department, confirmed this opinion to some extent. He said high tuition and post-graduation debt lead students to focus on earning money. He added that while he doesn’t support stereotyping entire generations, today’s college students are more committed to making the world better than their predecessors.

But ‘political action is not one of them,’ said Coplin, of students’ priorities.

This is a cultural phenomenon for activist leader Hadingham, who thinks: ‘We could be opening our eyes a lot more.’

She said she recognizes that some of the energy behind the youth movement has been diffused. It is her hope that the combination of media focus on the war’s anniversary and the battle concerning the withdrawal in Washington, D.C., can spark momentum for her crusade.

These generational references are positioning today’s college students in a dichotomy with the Vietnam War movement protesters. These were the protesters who shut down the SU campus in 1971 and became iconic of their era, with calls for peace and rebellion against authority.

Modern protests do not compare to the scope, widespread participation and effects of the demonstrations in the late ’60s and early ’70s. A recent demonstration on the American University campus protesting a visit by White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove earned national media attention. But the protest was relatively civil and was only noticed because of the lack of apathy from the AU students.

Here the typical student is less politically aware, but civically motivated demonstrations do occur, and one is set for later this month.

SPAN has a protest planned for April 19 on the Quad, which will focus on the effects of the war on the education system. It is the result of one of the group’s weekly Monday night meetings in the Hall of Languages and will be the third display of activism on campus this spring by the group.

It remains unclear what national or global event will need to take place before student activism arises on the SU campus and campuses across the nation. Possibly a draft, though one seems unlikely. Current events, such as a presidential veto on the proposed troop withdrawal, may be more probable instigators.

But today’s college students may be intrinsically uninterested in activism or debating topics of war and peace.

‘I don’t think they really want to discuss it very much,’ Coplin said.

Matt Reilly is an asst. news editor at The Daily Orange where his news analysis’ will appear occasionally. You can e-mail him at matt.s.reilly@gmail.com.

Published on April 10, 2007 at 12:00 pm