It’s unlikely that you could poke your head out of your dorm room and hear a chorus of protesters singing, “give peace a chance.” The days of strong antiwar activism seem confined to the Vietnam War era, and that has many baby boomers questioning whether students care.

But Vietnam was different. Students in the 1970’s were protesting as much against the draft as they were against the war. They also belonged to the first modern college generation and had the luxury of setting the precedents of the “college experience.”

With the outlandish prices of tuition today (Boston University’s costing $33,330 per year), students have a lot riding on what they accomplish during their academic career.

Spending too much time and energy assembling in the streets is not very productive — especially when there is little reason to believe that activism efforts will stop the war.

When asked, “Do you believe as commander-in-chief you have the authority to put the troops in there no matter what the Congress wants to do?” in a “60 Minutes” interview, President Bush responded, “In this situation, I do, yeah. Now, I fully understand they could try to stop me from doing it. But I made my decision, and we’re going forward.”

If the president doesn’t intend on acting on advice from his advisers, there is little hope he will give any consideration to antiwar protests.

Bush’s firm stance, along with his refusal to acknowledge the opinions of the majority of this country when it comes to the war in Iraq, does much to discourage citizens from thinking their voice can be heard.

And watching videos of Vietnam protesters being violently beaten by police does not get students chomping at the bit to leave their futons and pick up a picket sign.

The threat of being drafted gave Vietnam activists something that today’s would-be protesters are without: motivation. If the draft was imminent, there is little doubt that students would rally together to prevent themselves from being sent to combat.

Obviously a draft is far from an ideal situation, but students need to find direction from somewhere. Our strong community service efforts show students care, but more needs to be done to eliminate the assumption that most college students are apathetic. If everyone learned their rights, they would get a sense of entitlement and perhaps stop accepting the status quo.