“We don’t believe in indoctrination,” said Chair­man of the Cornell College Republicans Ah­med Salem ’08 as he spoke about the liberal tendencies of Cornell professors and the challenges conservative students face on Cornell’s left-leaning campus.

In light of the upcoming presidential primaries, the organization’s focus is on raising awareness and political involvement on campus. Salem stressed the importance of intellectual and political diversity to his organization.

Salem is an example of how increased political awareness can precipitate change. He explained that he identified with the Democratic Party his first two years at Cornell until his studies in economics and greater political consciousness shifted his views.

“What political candidate doesn’t say they’re for education? But what candidate does anything about it?” said Teach for America Recruitment Director Lisa Krauthamer ’04 at a packed information session Wednesday. “Education is our nation’s greatest injustice, and we need to do something about it.”

Just over two years have elapsed since student activists in the Cornell Organization for Labor Action (COLA) and the Cornell chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops (CSAS) began campaigning for the rights of workers who produce Cornell-logo clothing. Following last school year’s legal concerns over antitrust violations and a perceived shortage of participating universities, implementation of the national Designated Suppliers Program at Cornell has slowed, although some argue it has not come to a standstill.

Future Student and University Assembly members expressed their concerns about Cornell’s student government Tuesday night during a forum for fall 2007 undergraduate candidates.

The Student Assembly’s Director of Elections Mark Coombs ’08 asked candidates how they believed student government is perceived on campus.

Candidates agreed that participation in student government at Cornell is low and that most students do not know very much about the student governance. “When I tell people I’m running for S.A., they’ll ask “what is S.A.?” said freshman candidate WeiQin (Samantha) Dong ’11.

After being severely beaten during a mugging in 1999, a man spent six years in a minimally conscious state, virtually unable to communicate with others and eating through a feeding tube. Now 38, that man is not only able respond to commands and feed himself, but has also regained some characteristics of his personal identity after having his brain stimulated by electric currents.

“His speech has improved, he is regaining aspects his personhood and he is beginning to regain aspects of his personality,” said Prof. Joseph Fins, medicine, who collaborated with several doctors on the study. “He can eat three meals a day by mouth, say short sentences and recite the first 16 words of the pledge of allegiance.”

The Second Amendment states in part, “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Clark Neily is co-council on the Parker v. District of Columbia case that has again raised the question of the right to bear arms.

In a lecture Neily gave yesterday at Myron Taylor Hall, he explained that the District of Columbia currently has a ban on any household pistols that were not registered in 1976 or before. Even for the registered pistols, it is actually a crime for an owner to physically pick up the pistol and move it within his or her home.

According to Neily, this ban may very soon be lifted.

“All that we’re challenging is the ban on the possession of firearms at home, [not the right to carry],” explained Neily.