In the interest of full disclosure, I wear another hat as an officer at College Republicans. Needless to say, in this column I’m making no endorsements or partisan statements, and I’m speaking for myself alone. The remarkable part of this news story, though, is not the specifics of Mendy’s candidacy, but the broader possibility that Princeton students could reevaluate local government.
For reference, students living almost anywhere on campus besides the southernmost parts of Butler, Whitman and Forbes live in the Borough. (Those three areas fall under Princeton Township.) In other words, Princeton students are a significant slice of the Borough’s population — about 25 percent, according to Mendy. But despite the demographics — and even with occasional candidacies — no Princeton students currently sit on the Council.
That’s surprising in some ways, because plenty of issues that pique student curiosity have repercussions in the Borough. Take the debate about whether students who call for help for an intoxicated peer should be prosecuted for any illegal behavior. Mendy has made reconsideration of these laws an issue in his campaign. Now I don’t entirely agree with his stance, but at least he found the right forum. USG president Connor Diemand-Yauman ’10 has previously pledged to tackle alcohol laws, but he would do so from his perch in our student government — a doubtful approach at best. If students feel strongly that Borough Police should adopt an amnesty policy like the University’s, then the Borough Council is definitely the proper venue.
The University community also relies on certain services from the Borough, as students were reminded earlier this month: When Public Safety began investigating reports of an armed man on campus, they called Borough Police for assistance and armed backup. In the event of an actual crisis, any lethal force to save students’ lives would have had to have come from Borough officers. So as long as the University continues to stubbornly refuse to arm its own sworn law enforcement officers, then we will continue to depend on the town for at least that service.
More broadly, many of the issues Princeton students take up in intellectual, national or nonprofit contexts can have local government corollaries. Someone somewhere in our booming environmentalist movement must have ideas for changes that should be made in the Borough. Our resident tax hawks or workers’ rights activists could probably find an issue to take up in Borough government or business. Last year, plenty of students found their passions in the presidential campaign. This year, other students might seize the opportunity to smooth ruffled feathers between Borough residents, students and the University itself over issues like polling place locations.
This type of engagement and involvement isn’t a pipe dream: Some schools have frequent interactions between students and city government. Looking north to Yale, for instance, one ward of New Haven’s local government is majority student. Granted, their alderman system of government means that each district gets an alderman as opposed to the members-at-large system on Princeton Borough Council — so student representation is entrenched. Mendy remains confident that sufficient voter turnout will allow him to do well in the primary, but if Borough residents remain skeptical, it’s because, as Mendy explained, “They’ve seen a lot of students run and a lot of students lose.”
In my mind, the main reason even politically active students are not involved in Borough politics is that they remain registered to vote at home. Personally, I have a sort of split identity: I read about the Borough and the Township as well as my hometown government. I suppose it’s just a personal decision for each of us about where to register to vote, which for me means my hometown. Mendy said in our interview that he’d “be surprised if the issues being discussed in the primaries in [students’] hometowns were more relevant to them” than Borough issues. For me, at least, it doesn’t matter where students dive into local government — just that they do. For Mendy, of course, the point is moot: The Borough is his hometown.
Again, I’m not taking any stance on whether Mendy in particular deserves your vote. He and I definitely disagree on particular issues, but Mendy knows his Borough stuff; and my hope is that Princeton students might follow his lead and take another look at local government. Politically active Tigers and even students who shy from national political issues could prove again the wisdom of Alexis de Tocqueville by using local government as a first foray into civic participation.
Brian Lipshutz is a freshman from Lafayette Hill, Pa. He can be reached at lipshutz@princeton.edu.
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