ALLEGHENY COLLEGE CREATES SOAPBOX ALLIANCE TO END CLOSED CANDIDATE GATHERINGS ON NATION'S CAMPUSES

On the 150th anniversary of the birth of its pioneering investigative journalist, alumna Ida Tarbell, Allegheny College president Richard J. Cook will invite institutions of higher education nationwide to join Allegheny in a democracy-strengthening initiative with the goal of ending the practice by political candidates of holding closed meetings on college campuses.

In a morning news conference at the college, Cook will announce an initiative that invites leaders in higher education to join the “Soapbox Alliance,” a coalition of institutions that either have an open campaign-event policy or have pledged to work toward the goal of establishing an open-event policy by September 1, 2008.

“We encourage candidates and campaigns from all political parties to visit college and university campuses to engage students and the public in authentic discussion of the issues,” said Cook. “But we reject the notion of ‘town meetings' being limited to hand-picked supporters. Campuses should not be used as convenient backdrops for staged events designed to represent something they are not.”

The idea behind the initiative sprang from the dilemma Allegheny College faced during the 2004 election season when it received a request from the Bush-Cheney campaign to rent its gymnasium for a ticketed event, with the campaign organization determining how the tickets would be distributed. At the time, Allegheny's practice had been to welcome private groups to use its facilities with or without charge, depending on availability and circumstance. As a result, despite the college community's distaste for the idea of a closed “town meeting,” it found itself without a sound basis to deny the request.

The experience caused members of the college community to look for a way to encourage candidates to visit campus while embracing the ideals of authentic political engagement and debate. Led by Professor Daniel Shea, nationally respected scholar and founder of Allegheny's Center for Political Participation, and in collaboration with his faculty colleagues and the administration, the college adopted a policy that allows campaign organizations to reward supporters with tickets to an event but requires that at least half of the available seats must be made available to the general college community through a non-biased distribution.

The idea of encouraging other colleges to band together in order to strengthen the impact of such policies — and potentially end the practice of hosting closed campaign events on campuses altogether — was first described in a perspective piece by Shea that was published in the Chronicle of Higher Education in August 2006.

“The reaction to the article has been great,” said Shea. “But everyone realizes that colleges have to come together on this.”

Formal invitations to join the Soapbox Alliance will be mailed on Nov. 5 to college and university presidents across the country. In addition, information about the Alliance will be sent to others in the higher education community, such as provosts, deans and editors of student newspapers.

“I'm convinced that students care deeply about genuine debate and are turned off by anything else,” Shea said.

Also on Monday, a web site, www.soapboxalliance.org, will be launched to provide information about the Alliance—its history, purpose and progress—and a vehicle for public discussion of the role of open political debate in America.

What Others Are Saying
Real town hall: Allegheny College puts the people in democracy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/9/07

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