In this year, Harvard students voted in support of both Beth A. Stewart's '99 anti-activist platform, as well as the return of grapes to our dining halls. Such results on a largely liberal campus confound the observer because they suggest a campus replete with social and political apathy.

College is traditionally seen as a time for idealism, yet it seems we live in a cynical age where students increasingly demonstrate collective despair with politics by making apolitical choices. Activism, since the 1960s, has existed in the shadow of that turbulent decade. Nothing could be as big or bold or nationally impressive a demonstration of dissent as the age of D.C. marches and SDS rallies.

It may not have sent shock waves across campus as powerful as the 1969 University hall sit-in, but the Democracy Teach-Ins (DTI) brought mallscale activism to Harvard, along with a taste of what could be.

"I hope that people find inspiration, that people find in the Teach-In hope for the rejuvenation [or] even the reconsideration of these issues," Frank J. Gorke '99, an organizer of the event, said.

Taking place this week at an estimated 110 college campuses around the nation, the teach-in is a nod to the power of grassroots movements. Recalling the efforts of activist that went before, student organizers of the national event met in Chicago (hello, 1968) this fall to orchestrate the nationwide program. What is remarkable, given the amount of well-traveled organizational roads teach-in student coordinators followed, is how refreshingly new much of the material presented this week has been. Although conducted in the vocabulary of a previous generation, today's activists have a brand new agenda.

DTI was brought to Harvard by student group representatives on Unite! with the aim of providing students with the facilities and the impetus to think more deeply about themselves, their college experience, and Harvard's role as a world actor. So far, the teach-in (which ends tomorrow) has included events dedicated to a range of subjects joined by their effort to examine questions of social justice and political agency.

"You came here to learn, didn't you?" ask promotional posters taped to Emerson gate in front of the Science Center. The prevailing assumption behind DTI activities is that many students at the College are not learning the fundamentals of participatory democracy, even despite efforts to do so by traditional means. The goal of DTI, given this environment of stifled learning, is to elicit participation, discussion and questioning.

"I see a lot of silences, empty spaces in people's conciousnesses, things that aren't addressed in daily student life," said Gorke. "We hope to create spaces, places, forums, means for people to engage with things that aren't covered in the Core Curriculum."

DTI features subject matter that may be new to some, such as the teaching of sexual orientation, the political motivations of the Zapatistas (a Mexican rebel group), what it means to live in corporate culture and new ways to explore the fragmenting effects of identity politics.

These subjects, or alternate approaches to them offered by DTI, may be seen by students as less valid than those taught under Harvard's auspices, which indicates another goal of the Teach-In: opening people's minds to just what they may be missing.

A key element of the program is "democracy," what organizers define as representation that let's every citizen take part in government and community discussions to generate political solutions.

The ever-eloquent Professor Cornel West, kick-off speaker for the week's events, summed up the concept in his speech to an audience of about a hundred students in Harvard Hall Monday evening.

"Democracy is about dialogue and action, also courageous participation. You have to push yourself to an abyss--recognize you can make a difference," said West. It was clearly an inspirational message.

Somewhat less inspirational was the mass exodus that followed Professor West's speech on the need for democratic dialogue. A small group of fewer than 20 people stayed to hear a student panel discuss "Apathy or Activism?" a discussion that put into effect many of the concepts that Professor West discussed.

Maybe its time that we start coming down on the side of activism instead.