How the Democratic Candidates View Academe

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The temperature outside is hovering around zero, but that -- and the fact that the headline act inside the armory here is a politician -- has not stopped some 600 college students from coming out on a Friday night in early January. Then again, the politician they have come to see is not conventional in many ways. He is Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who has gone from asterisk to front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in less than a year.

As Jesus Jones's hit "Right Here, Right Now" blares from overhead speakers, a handful of students pass out "Dean for America" placards and bumper stickers and sing along -- "the world could change at the blink of an eye."

Few seem to care that Dr. Dean is already 20 minutes late. They have traveled from 38 states to New Hampshire -- the site, on January 27, of the nation's first state primary -- to hear stump speeches and question the Democratic presidential candidates at a four-day convention of college students. Some are undecided voters, hoping to make up their minds here.

A door near the stage suddenly swings open, and out of the flock of reporters and photographers that has gathered emerges Dr. Dean. He quickly pops up on the stage and starts into his speech. "A quarter of the people working on my campaign are your age," he shouts to the still-applauding crowd. "You are the juice that makes this campaign run, and we're going to win because of it."

After lashing out at President Bush's environmental record, Dr. Dean moves on to education. "The president has cut Pell Grants and AmeriCorps, all those things he promised he wouldn't do," Dr. Dean says. He tells the group about his plan to expand college participation by guaranteeing at least $10,000 a year in federal and state grants to students who, by the eighth grade, agree to prepare for and apply to college or a career-training program. "That makes a college education affordable to every American," he says to a chorus of cheers.

Although not all the candidates appeared here -- Richard A. Gephardt and Al Sharpton skipped the event -- and higher education only received a few minutes in the speeches of those who did show up, seven of the eight Democrats running for president did respond to a survey from The Chronicle in which they explained their positions on pressing issues like rising tuition, foreign students, and stem-cell research.

Wesley K. Clark, Dr. Dean, John Edwards, Mr. Gephardt, John Kerry, Dennis J. Kucinich, and Joseph I. Lieberman answered questions on 10 issues. Mr. Sharpton did not respond. Officials with President Bush's campaign said they would provide answers at a later date since the president does not face any primary opposition.

On many issues the candidates agreed, and in a few instances, college leaders may not like what they hear. The Democrats all mentioned, for instance, that the rising cost of a college education was a major problem, and several criticized colleges for their low graduation rates, particularly among low-income and minority students.

Even so, all the candidates said they opposed a Republican bill before Congress that would penalize colleges for large increases in tuition. Rather, several Democrats proposed increases for Pell Grants and other federal financial-aid programs. General Clark, Dr. Dean, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Kerry, and Mr. Kucinich went even further: They would make one, two, or even four years of a college education free for many students.

In a year when the average sticker price at four-year public colleges rose 14 percent, its highest rate in three decades, the focus in this campaign on college costs is sure to engage parents and fire up students. Not since 1972 has a presidential campaign galvanized the youth vote the way this one has, says James L. Walsh, a political-science professor at New England College, one of the sponsors of the convention here.

"Dean and Clark have been the best in tapping into young people," Mr. Walsh says. "But all the candidates learned a lesson from the last election cycle: Every vote counts, so you can't snub any group."

Focus on Costs

Most of the policy proposals discussed by the Democrats on the campaign trail so far focus on helping students pay for college or increasing their chances of graduating once enrolled, and the candidates reiterated their position on costs in answers to several questions in the Chronicle survey.

General Clark, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Kerry, and Mr. Kucinich, like Dr. Dean, have unveiled new and costly student-aid programs. General Clark's plan would provide $6,000 for the first two years of college to students with a family income up to $100,000. Mr. Kucinich wants to offer free tuition to the 11.3 million students who attend public colleges. Mr. Kerry's "Service for College" program would provide students with the equivalent of their state's four-year public-college tuition in exchange for two years of service.

And Mr. Edwards's proposal, dubbed "College for Everyone," would give up to one year of free tuition at a public college to students who take the appropriate college-preparatory courses in high school and spend an average of 10 hours each week in a work-study job or community-service position while in college.

"We have hundreds of thousands of young people who want to go to college, who are qualified to go to college, but don't go," Mr. Edwards, a senator from North Carolina, told the students in his appearance here. "Why don't they go? It's not complicated: They can't afford it."

Rather than creating a broad-based aid program, Mr. Gephardt said in the Chronicle survey that he would focus his efforts on would-be teachers by paying off the student loans for those who agree to teach for five years.

"We can't continue to lose people who are born to be teachers but who can't afford to pursue that career because they can't pay their college loans," said Mr. Gephardt, who also pledged to make the first $10,000 of college costs tax-deductible.

Several candidates, including General Clark, Mr. Gephardt, and Mr. Kerry, promised to provide federal aid to states burdened by large budget deficits, which in turn have forced lawmakers to increase tuition at public colleges.

But they and many of the other Democrats also said that colleges need to be more accountable on costs and graduating students. Mr. Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, said that colleges "should work to make the higher-education system more efficient, without sacrificing quality, by streamlining services and reducing duplication." And Dr. Dean wants to increase "public scrutiny of spending in higher education, in order to root out waste."

Although Dr. Dean also criticized colleges for their low graduation rates -- 41 percent of all college students fail to graduate within six years -- it was Mr. Lieberman who reserved the strongest condemnation for colleges and federal programs that "remain focused primarily on helping students start college, not helping them finish." If elected president, Mr. Lieberman, a senator from Connecticut, said he would set a goal that by 2020 at least 90 percent of high-school graduates go on to the military, college, or vocational school, and that at least 90 percent of students who start college finish with a bachelor's degree within six years or an associate degree within three years.

Changes in Tuition-Tax Credits

To pay for their proposals, the candidates offered a variety of options, including a few that would have a direct effect on colleges and students. General Clark would eliminate the Hope federal tax credit, which now covers 100 percent of college expenses up to $1,000 and 50 percent of the next $1,000, for a maximum of $1,500. He has also said that he would reserve Pell Grants for only the last two years of college.

General Clark and Mr. Edwards also predicted a financial windfall for their student-aid programs from their plans to strengthen the federal government's direct-lending program. The troubled program provides loans directly to students through their colleges, bypassing banks and the fees they charge.

The other candidates, except for Dr. Dean and Mr. Kucinich, also promised to shore up the direct-loan program. Mr. Kucinich, a congressman from Ohio, said he would make direct lending "irrelevant" under his plan to provide free public-college tuition. Dr. Dean sidestepped the question, saying "one of the problems with Washington is the amount of campaign contributions, high-priced lobbyists, time, and energy that go into arcane issues like this."

Knowing how popular the Clinton-era tuition-tax credits are with middle-class voters, no other candidate other than General Clark advocated eliminating one of them immediately. Several pledged to make the Hope and Lifetime Learning credits easier to understand. Mr. Gephardt, a congressman from Missouri, promised to increase the cap to $2,500 on the Lifetime Learning credit, which pays 20 percent of tuition costs up to $10,000. Mr. Gephardt, along with Mr. Kerry, would also make the credit refundable. Currently, most low-income families are unable to receive the credits because they do not pay enough in taxes.

Since the last presidential election in 2000, several higher-education issues have emerged as hot-button topics, while others that were subjects of debate the last time around are more peripheral this year. For instance, although the candidates all say they support affirmative action in college admissions, the issue is not getting much attention in the campaign since the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on the matter last June.

At the same time, other issues have pushed their way to the forefront, like student visas, classified research, and stem cells. The candidates walked the fine line between national security and academic freedom on questions related to student visas and university research that, if it were to get in the wrong hands, could be useful to terrorists.

Many of them provided answers similar to that of General Clark, who said that "academic research is fundamental to the development of the new ideas, technologies, medical treatments, and theories that are crucial to our future. I believe that whenever possible the freedom to explore and discover should be protected."

All the candidates who responded to the Chronicle survey said they would reverse the Bush administration's ban on federal financing of embryonic stem-cell research. Only Mr. Edwards, Mr. Gephardt, and Mr. Kerry explicitly said that they supported "therapeutic" cloning, or the use of cloning techniques to create embryo-like cells to provide a source of stem cells, a tool that biomedical researchers say is important to advance stem-cell research.

General Clark had one of the more technically detailed responses to stem-cell research, largely adopting the Clinton administration's position on the issue. He would allow federal funds for studies of embryonic stem cells that scientists created using private funds. But he would not allow the use of federal dollars to derive the stem cells from embryos, a process that destroys the embryos. The other candidates did not explicitly draw that distinction.

Clark Packs the Hall; Edwards Doesn't

At the college convention here, General Clark packed the hall, drawing almost as many people as Dr. Dean, a sign of the general's growing strength in New Hampshire. Mr. Edwards attracted crowds only about half that size, leaving some supporters wondering why a candidate they likened to Bill Clinton has yet to catch fire among young voters. In his speech, Mr. Edwards tried to appeal to the students' youthful optimism by telling them about his rise as the son of working-class parents, the first in his family to go to college, and his success as a trial lawyer.

"You're the generation that's not cynical," he told the crowd. "You believe in what's possible. It is time for a president who believes in you." And then, in a swipe at Dr. Dean, who earlier in the day criticized Mr. Edwards's Senate vote in support of the Iraq war, the senator from North Carolina said, "My campaign is not built on the politics of putting people down. It's time to stop the sniping and choose a president."

As the front-runner, not only is Dr. Dean drawing fire from his rivals, but he also received plenty of boos at the convention, mainly for his response to a question on legalizing marijuana. Dr. Dean opposes it. "We have enough problems with cigarettes and alcohol," Dr. Dean said to a mix of cheers and hissing.

When Dr. Dean finished a few minutes later and tried to make a quick exit, many students swarmed around him, asking for autographs and posing for pictures. One of them, Ian Kysel, a senior at Swarthmore College, said he was impressed by Dr. Dean and Mr. Edwards, but is still keeping an open mind: "I'm holding out to see who emerges as the candidate who can beat Bush."