Ever since February 5, something has been missing from the Washington University campus. No longer do students overhear political conversations as they wait in line at Bear’s Den, nor do they get trapped by the political groups tabling as they walk through Mallinckrodt.

This raises the question: Have primary politics disappeared from Washington University?

Several months ago, students were gathering at Democratic Presidential candidate and Illinois Sentator Barack Obama’s headquarters in St. Louis to watch the Democratic debates.

Now, when students were asked randomly, not if they listened to, but if they were aware that Obama made an important speech on March 18, none answered yes.

Missouri is a swing state for national elections, and considering it has a tendency to pick the winner in the general elections, Missouri can be important. Therefore, it was not surprising how much campaigning and politics surrounded the early parts of February, especially considering this campaign cycle’s youth activism.

In a normal election year, both parties’ candidates are chosen on Super Tuesday or soon after.

This year, the primary cycle just keeps going as neither Democratic candidate has yet reached the necessary number of delegates to secure the nomination.

For some students, there is just no point in paying attention anymore.

“I was relatively interested in the race,” said sophomore Natacha Lam. “I did some research on the candidates on my own and watched the actual Super Tuesday on TV.”

After Super Tuesday, however, Lam, like many others, just lost interest.

“There’s nothing I can do about it,” she said. “I did my civic duty by voting and after that I’ll wait until the general [election].”

At this point, the primaries are just not affecting the average University student anymore. For some, this primary cycle has been extremely disappointing.

Student Union Vice President Brittany Perez is from Florida. Due to Florida’s attempt to move up its Democratic primary without consent of the National Democratic Party, the state’s delegates, and therefore votes, were stripped.

“I’m from Florida,” said Perez, “so I paid attention to the fact that my vote was taken away.”

Perez said she was excited about the possibility of Florida redoing its primary but was disappointed when the opportunity did not come about like she hoped.

Students wait for a chance to feel like they make a difference again, whether here or in their home state.

Meanwhile, it seems to students that the primaries are going on without really causing anything to change.

“I have been paying attention but I don’t feel it’s as necessary since I have a Republican view and my candidate is pretty much picked already,” said sophomore Kelly Rocheleau. “All of the name calling between Hillary and Obama I just don’t really pay attention to.”

The stalemate, then, has just as much impact as the length of the campaign.

“If it were shorter it’d be easier to follow, but I don’t really think it’s that big an issue it’s spread out,” said Rocheleau.

For some, it all comes down to the fact that those at Washington University are just students. Junior Neha Tibrewala said that she was working so hard on her extracurricular activities that she did not really have time to watch the news.

“I’ve been paying enough attention to know McCain is the Republican nominee and the Democrats are between Obama and Hillary,” she said. “I have CNN on my homepage so every time I use the Internet I have to look at the headlines.”

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