"It wouldn't be unfair to say we're a little self-involved," says PSLM co-leader Daniel M. Hennefeld '99. "I think students at Harvard are busy and Harvard extracurriculars are really hard-core.

According to Stephaine I. Greenwood '99, a UNITE! and RADWAC member, having so many things to do takes away from the effectiveness of activism.

"I think a big problem is that we are incredibly busy students here, and our time is over-stretched in most cases," she says. "This means that students who are already involved in several things are not as able to support other groups as much, making our collective power that much weaker."

But some activist leaders have more strident criticisms of the University and its student body, arguing that Harvard is no longer a place for academic exploration and self-discovery and is rather a stepping stone to a good career.

"It's really not surprising at all that at the most elite educational center, you wouldn't have a lot of people working toward social and economic equality," says Rosslyn Wuchinich '99, a founding member of UNITE! and a member of Education For Action (E4A). "Much of Harvard's purpose is to reproduce a middle and upper class."

"[Harvard] is a springboard into the upper class," says Morgan. "It becomes very hard to motivate against that."

Epps says he sees an increasing number of students "coming to Harvard to enjoy higher education to its fullest extent." He says this increased emphasis on academics has helped lessen the extent to which students get involved with activism.

Furthermore, he says the selective nature of the admissions process may also play a role.

"You're getting highly focused people who know precisely what they want to do," Epps says.

But in addition to these reasons, the perception of a lack of unifying issues to rally students around contributes to a lack of activism.

"There's a real lack of the very large issues of the '60s," Morgan says. But "the funny thing," he says, is that "none of the problems of the '60s have gone away."

Redmond also laments the change in climate.

"In the 1960s there was a political climate that encouraged activism, but right now there's not that environment," she says. "There's not that push there was during the '60s and that's a concern."

"I wonder at people who say that nothing is happening now, that there are no great causes like there were before," Greenwood says. "I think now is one of the most politically terrifying times to be living."

But, activists on campus say that helping students see that this is true is not easy.