 "Photo: Caleb Miller")
University students from both sides of the political aisle have left their classrooms and entered campaign offices this primary season.
Today is the primary election for which student campaign groups have spent weeks and months preparing.
Students for Barack Obama, Students for Ron Paul, Students for Hillary Clinton and the Longhorn Chapter of Texans for Huckabee have made phone calls, canvassed neighborhoods and passed out flyers to support their respective presidential candidates.
Students for Barack Obama first registered with the Office of the Dean of Students in March 2007. The group acquired a new meeting place when the Obama campaign opened an office in Dobie Mall on Feb. 25.
Computer science and philosophy senior Tanis De Luna has volunteered for the Obama campaign since last year. De Luna joined the organization after returning from Iowa where he knocked on doors to garner support for the Illinois senator.
De Luna said he likes the point of view Obama would bring to the White House.
"It's the idea of having someone who has the perspective of having been a community organizer, a professor of constitutional law," De Luna said. "That's the kind of perspective I want in a president."
History sophomore Julia Del Bosque co-founded Students for Ron Paul in the summer of 2007.
Del Bosque said she supports Paul for his ideology, consistency and voting record as a Texas congressman for 10 years.
"I realized that the media's not covering his campaign fairly, if at all," Del Bosque said. "And if I really want this candidate to get elected, I realized I had to do something about it myself."
She said there are 20 to 30 active members in the group and about 200 in the UT Students for Ron Paul Facebook group.
Despite Paul's low position in the polls, Students for Ron Paul still hosts weekly meetings in Burdine Hall to coordinate canvassing, phone banking and delegate training.
Del Bosque said she thinks Paul will do well in the Texas primary, especially in Austin.
"I think that people are going to be quite surprised with the Austin turnout," Del Bosque said.
Public affairs and engineering graduate student Jason West co-founded the Longhorn Chapter of Texans for Huckabee, which registered with the Office of the Dean of Students in November 2007.
West said in an e-mail that the student group has since partnered with Austin grassroots efforts to canvass and phone bank.
He said he supports the former Arkansas governor for his conservative record and executive experience.
"Gov. Huckabee is unapologetically for supporting, and not undermining, family, faith and freedom," West said. "I support Gov. Huckabee because of his impressive record solving problems in Arkansas."
West said college students might be drawn to Huckabee's ability to relate to their experiences with tuition increases, expensive textbooks and debt.
"College students want to know that the candidate understands what life is like for them," West said. "Gov. Huckabee worked his way through college."
He said Huckabee's talent as a bass guitarist might also draw students.
Students for Hillary president Tory Lauterbach started the group in preparation for Clinton's arrival in Texas.
Lauterbach said the organization registered the week of Super Tuesday and has been campaigning since. She said a group of about 25 students goes to the Clinton headquarters on Ben White Boulevard three to four days a week to canvass and make phone calls, among other campaign duties.
"Every person on our listserv is responsible for getting 25 people out to vote, so that should turn the campus out pretty quickly," Lauterbach said.
She said 180 students have signed up with the group but only about 70 are active.
As a New Yorker, Lauterbach said she is voting for Clinton because of the senator's service to her community.
"She kept factories open, she kept military bases open, she kept a lot of jobs in the state, she got us more money to protect our buildings from terrorism and she really supported our troops," Lauterbach said. "Her tremendous representation of New Yorkers makes me believe that she's going to be just as tremendous a representative of the American people."
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