Last week we took an aggressive approach in supporting voting-demanding that citizens participate, and shaming those who won’t. This week we would like to praise an organization on-campus that is participating and providing a positive example to us all-the Gerontology Institute.

As our page three article details, the Gerontology Institute, in conjunction with other on-campus groups and lead by Wichian Rojanawon of the Gerontology’s LETS (Life Enrichment Through Studies) Program has brought candidate after candidate to the UMB campus.

While all of the uncountable institutes and centers on this campus are busily securing grants and planning trips and doing studies, it is often hard to see the action-or what possible benefit or impact those actions could have upon our students or our community.

Many UMB organizations apparently have some impact on Beacon Hill, or in D.C., or in a far-flung third-world nation, but few have any real presence on-campus. There’s an old cliché that says “charity begins at home,” meaning help those standing next to you.

We are not, of course, opposed to changing a national policy, or increasing employment in Ireland, but first we’d like to see somebody change a few policies here at UMass, Boston, or provide some economic development for UMB students.

The Gerontology Institute, and those who worked with the Institute to bring this series of candidates to campus, enabled the students and campus community to become active participants in the democratic process of Massachusetts-and from our point-of-view, that’s a good place to start.