"The campus is becoming more apathetic in general as opposed to becoming more moderate," Bolen says.
Olney suggests that students are just less motivated to become politically involved.
"Look at what graduating seniors do. Nobody goes in the Peace Corps, nobody goes to work for the government. They go to Wall Street, they go to L.A. to work for consulting. I think that's the perfect indicator of where people's interests are."
Issues-Based Activism
Campus liberal sentiment may also be taking a different form, according to political group leaders.
"Liberalism in the student body doesn't translate into a desire to get involved politically anymore. I think students these days, mostly because of trends in society as a whole, are decidedly apolitical," Olney says.
Students who once would have rallied around candidates now rally around activities like volunteering.
"Since there's some disillusionment with politics nowadays, I think some people try to channel their activism into community service activities," Passante says.
Over the past several years, ethnic student groups have become more involved in community service and smaller community service groups like Harvard-Radcliffe Little People have sprung up, while PBHA's 1700 student membership has remained constant.
Hopkins adds that liberals, who are increasingly drawn to work in "very focused areas," have also turned to the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) to target specific issues.
In the past year, PSLM (which became part of PBHA last semester) has participated in protests of Guess? and protested at the Business School, putting pressure on a professor who sits on the board of the Cardinal Health Corporation. PSLM opposed the pharmaceutical distribution company's treatment of striking workers.
Fragmented Liberalism
In this new, fragmented liberalism, the College Democrats seem to have lost their position of pre-eminence as a political rallying point.
"In terms of on campus events, I don't really hear [the Democrats'] name a lot in liberal circles," Hopkins says.
Despite their efforts to branch out, the efforts of the College Democrats remain focused on politics off the campus and in the campaign room. "Our main niche is campaigns," Passante says. "We're the only organization on campus I know of that actively puts people in political campaigns, and that's probably our main selling point."
But in an increasingly fragmented and pragmatic campus culture, it is unclear whether this role will ever be as large as it once was.
"Although I think there is a population here that is genuinely interested in the broad political world, I think that the Beth Stewart election, at least, is testament to the fact that...people do construct their interests fairly narrowly and want things that relate to themselves," Hopkins says.