Former Vice President AL GORE ’69 speaks to Harvard College Democrats in a packed Jefferson Hall.

Former Vice President Al Gore ’69 urged students to assume leadership roles in politics in a talk Friday but said he is still unsure if he will run for president in 2004.

“I haven’t decided if I will be a candidate again,” he told an audience of about 300 in Jefferson Hall.

But Gore said he would actively campaign for other candidates this year and encouraged his audience—composed almost entirely of Harvard College Democrats—to become involved in the Democratic effort.

“Consider running for office. Consider being a candidate. Consider being actively involved,” Gore said. “Campaigns are really run by people your age.”

The former vice president, who visited his alma mater to accept the College Democrats’ Democrat of the Year award, echoed criticisms he made of the Bush Administration earlier this month at the Florida Democratic Conference.

Gore was especially critical of Bush’s environmental policy.

“Since they can’t price the environment in dollars and cents, it doesn’t seem to have much value,” he said.

Gore applauded Bush for his leadership following Sept. 11 but said the president’s policies toward Afghanistan were flawed.

“There has been a reluctance to do what’s needed to give the Afghan people a chance,” he said, criticizing the peace-keeping force in that country as too small and poorly deployed.

Gore also tried to make light of his loss in the 2000 election and of a much-reported expression of affection he gave his wife at the Democratic National Convention that year.

“People ask me if you had the campaign to do over again, would you do anything different?” he said. “I would have kissed my wife Tipper longer.”

Criticized for his boring rhetorical style in 2000, anecdotes in his talk Friday drew sustained laughter from the audience.

Gore was the second recipient of the Democrat of the Year award, which was first given to U.S. House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) in 1999, according to Sonia H. Kastner ’03, president of the College Democrats.

The former vice president has re-emerged in recent months after keeping a relatively low profile following the 2000 presidential election—in addition to his Florida address, he made an Earth Day appearance at Vanderbilt University last week.

Gore is currently writing a book with his wife on family issues, and teaches at Fisk University and Middle Tennessee State University.

“I’m a visiting professor, or ‘v.p.’ for short,” he quipped. “It’s a way to hang on.”