<p>Seriously?! I’ve never felt that Rice was politically apathetic. Maybe it’s just the crowd I hang with but tons of people I know were really interested in the Houston mayoral race and the Texas governer’s race. One of my dumbass friends is from Virginia but has made it his sole mission to help get Rick Perry re-elected…whatever. He doesn’t know **** but at least that’s conservative rather than apathetic, haha. The current Houston mayor (Bill White) has a good shot at winning the governor’s office in 2010 so a lot of people are interested in that. I would say that Rice is slightly more liberal than conservative; lots of students come down and find that while they may have been considered moderate or conservative in their hometowns (northeast, northwest, whatever), they’re liberals in Texas. For what it’s worth, Martel started blaring the “yes we can” song from the speakers after the '08 election while people ran around popping champagne. So maybe it’s not that we outnumber conservatives, just that we’re louder…ha.</p>
<p>I have a lot of friends who’s parents are involved in government internationally, so while Rice students may not be apathetic about politics, it may be true that there’s less interest in American politics.</p>