With the critical Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries only days away, Harvard students are hitting the campaign trail.

Part of a national attempt to mobilize student workers, these undergraduates and recent graduates are going all out to turn the tide for faltering candidates and help push campaigns of popular candidates down the long road to the summer conventions.

Undergraduates hold key positions in several campaigns, and all the major candidates have support groups on campus. Massive student participation in the presidential campaigns dates back to 1968. In that year, an exodus of Massachusetts student voters handed Eugene McCarthy a stunning New Hampshire primary victory, revealing that Harvard and other colleges can be sources for manpower and enthusiasm important for a successful presidential drive.

"Students have always provided enthusiasm and excitement," says Ariela J. Gross '87, national student coordinator for the Michael S. Dukakis For President campaign. More importantly, in small states like New Hampshire student volunteers can reach enough registered voters to make the difference between and upset victory and a suprising defeat, workers say. An early win New Hampshire or elsewhere, can build momentum for a presidential race, while a poor showing can kill a candidate's hopes at the beginning of a campaign.

Student volunteers play a crucial role in February. All candidates hope to show strongly in either Iowa or New Hampshire and so they need volunteers who can canvass entire towns in a few hours.

"The most important thing we do at this point is getting people up to New Hampshire," says Jane E. Arnold '90, campus coordinator for Congressman Richard Gephardt (D.-Mo.) When participating on a canvassing trip, students receive a short orientation as they arrive at New Hampshire sites, load up with literature and lists of voters, and head out. Campaigns provide transportation, food and organization.

Although the vast majority of student campaign workers are part-time volunteers, a number of Harvard undergraduates and recent graduates have taken full-time jobs on the campaign. Evan O. Grossman '87-'88 is one such worker. Having warmed up in 1984 as an advance man for the Democratic ticket of Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, he now works for Dukakis as an analyst and coordinator. His job includes compiling daily delegate counts, financial information and logistical data.

Grossman says he has put in 15-hour days at campaign headquarters in recent weeks now that his honors thesis in Social Studies is complete. "It's difficult for students who are busy with exams and classes to have the time for a campaign," Grossman says. "I tried not to sleep too much."

Students working across party lines are equally dedicated. James D. Chung '88 is one of Sen. Robert Dole's (R.-Kan.) lead advance men in New England and Washington, D.C. A native of Wichita, Kansas, Chung worked for Dole during his earlier years in the Senate and joined the campaign last July.

"When I'm working, I'm up at six and not asleep until two a.m.," the Cabot House resident says. "It's harsh, really, really harsh." Chung is surviving 100-hour work weeks right now, working almost like a nanny. His job includes waking his candidate, feeding him, sending him to smaller events, putting him into holding rooms, preparing for other events, and finally putting him to bed at around 10 p.m. "Then I begin doing all the work for the next day," Chung says.

The students working on campaigns may not be spending much time in their classes, but they are getting an education in the inner workings of politics. "The toughest thing is balancing all the different factions within the campaign as well as the people outside," Chung says. "Everyone has different goals, different ideas of what the senator should do."

One of the groups participating in this political tug of war includes the student workers themselves. Since Gary Hart's presidential drive emphasizes "new ideas" and appeals for student activism, young people play key roles in shaping the candidate's policies, supporters say. Alan Khazei '83, resident scholar in law and public service at Currier House is a long-time Hart supporter. He coordinated 15 percent of the precincts in New Hampshire for Hart's 1984 victory and now works as a speechwriter and organizer in the newly revitalized drive.

Khazei says he worked closely on the formulation of Hart's proposals for national public service legislation, which proposes compulsory community service work for college-age youth. Hart's college organizers say that they like Hart's "progressive, national" vision, and Khazei says that workers in their early twenties will be more numerous in Hart's campaign than in any other candidate's.

Affecting the Issues

Student campaign workers say that student interests have also affected the issues that other candidates have focused on. At the Dukakis camp, Grossman says young people want the next president to address issues that have disrupted campuses nationwide such as Central America, apartheid and the homeless. And Avram S. Brown '88-89, co-coordinator for Hart at Harvard, says many students want a candidate who is "not willing to rely on traditional liberal solutions," which is how Hart couches his appeal.