John Edwards, the 2004 Democratic candidate for vice president, may be spending as much time on the campaign trail as on campus these days. The Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, reports that Mr. Edwards, a former U.S. senator, has spent only about half of the last two months on the Chapel Hill campus, where he is director of the Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity.

Part of the senator’s off-campus time is devoted to College for Everyone, a pilot program he has promoted to give college-application advice to high-school seniors as well as financial assistance for their first year of college at selected institutions (The Chronicle, July 7).

But he also has hit the campaign trail for candidates in the November elections, including a dozen recent stops in Iowa, home to the country’s first presidential caucus. Could he be gearing up to run in 2008?

“I am seriously thinking about it but haven’t made a final decision,” Mr. Edwards told The Daily Tar Heel.