Students Lead Presidential Election Forum

Days before the Presidential election, Community Health students explained and critiqued the healthcare platforms of the candidates.

Four days before the historic U.S. Presidential election, a class of Community Health students conducted a forum to highlight the presidential candidates’ positions on health issues.

The students represented four national political parties and their candidates for president and vice president -- the Democratic Party; Republican Party; Green Party USA; and, the Libertarian Party.  Each student team presented what the candidates said and didn’t say about important health issues including healthcare, public health, environmental health (chemical exposures, global warming, etc.), occupational health, community health, children's and teen health, and elder health.

Chancellor Marty Meehan welcomed the forum audience and said it was important that students become more politically informed and active in order to increase their “civic engagement” and ability to help solve the many problems facing our state and country.

Students from the School of Health and Environment and the departments of Political Science, Sociology, History and Psychology nearly filled O’Leary auditorium.

“The students did a great job helping the UMass Lowell community cut through the rhetoric to have a better sense of what each party might accomplish to improve public health in the U.S., if elected,” says Craig Slatin, chair of Community Health and Sustainability in the School of Health and Environment.

The students critiqued the candidates’ proposals and the parties’ healthcare platform statements. 

The Republican candidates’ positions on healthcare insurance and programs were challenged for the contradictions between the stated goals and the proposed tax mechanisms that would actually make those goals unattainable.

The Democratic candidates’ positions on these issues were challenged for the lack of specificity about plans to put them into operation. 

The Green Party USA candidates were hailed for the boldness and strength of their healthcare and other public health proposals, but were challenged for the lack of detail about how they would maneuver politically to set these programs into motion.

Lastly, the students said the Libertarian Party’s strong support for individual liberty and private property rights resulted in the near failure of the party to propose any meaningful role for government in protecting and promoting the public’s health.

- Sandra_Seitz