October 20, 1994: Vol26n7: Baldwin, Kennedy speak at UB

By STEVE COX
Reporter Staff
Actor William RBillyS Baldwin and environmental activist Robert F.
RBobbyS Kennedy, Jr., son of the late U.S. Senator from New York,
brought the Cuomo campaign to UB last week in an effort to drum up
support among college voters.
	Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd in the lobby of the
Student Union on Oct. 12, Kennedy explained that he was stumping for
Gov. Mario Cuomo, despite the fact that five members of his own family
are running for public office, because Rhe is one of the few
politicial leaders out there who shares the vision my father had of
what this country should be.S Kennedy and Baldwin joined Christopher
Cuomo, youngest son of the governor, at the midday rally.
	RMario Cuomo knows that we will be judged by future
generations,S Kennedy continued, Rnot based on the size of our armies
or the wealth of our corporations, but on how well we care for the
least fortunate in our society.S Urging his listeners to register and
vote, Kennedy explained that polls show the RstudentS vote, young
voters generally between 18 and 30, as being the Rsingle most
important voting bloc in this election.S Young voters are historically
notorious for staying away from the polls. Ironically, KennedyUs
father, as a U.S. Senator, was a significant force in reducing the
voting age from 21 to 18.
	Baldwin, younger brother of actor Alec Baldwin and now one of
HollywoodUs most recognizable leading men himself, has starred in
movies including Flatliners, Backdraft and Sliver. A Democratic party
activist, he worked on MTV cable networkUs RRock the VoteS
registration drive and campaigned for Senate candidate Robert Abrams
in 1992.
	Baldwin told his audience that he made this trip because he is
a lifelong New Yorker who shares with Gov. Cuomo a Rpassion, love and
commitment to New York State.S Baldwin, who grew up on Long Island,
feels he owes a great deal of his success to the access to a college
education the State University system gave him.
	RI was the fourth of six children to go to college,S said
Baldwin, who graduated from State University at Binghamton in 1985.
RMy dad was so far in debt by then that he could do little to help me.
I would get a note from him when I was at Binghamton with $40 in it,
then another a couple weeks later.
	RThen, I got a 15-page letter explaining how there simply was
no more money; it made me cry,S said Baldwin. RWithout the affordable
access of the state university and the Tuition Assistance Program,
which George Pataki voted to gut, I would not have made it to where I
am today.S Baldwin also took a jab at GOP candidate PatakiUs
Tflip-floppingU on the abortion issue, calling him Rmore multiple
choice than pro-choice.S
	Kennedy, a faculty member and director of the Environmental
Litigation Clinic at Pace University Law School in White Plains as
well as general counsel to the environmental group Hudson Riverkeeper,
called PatakiUs record on the environment among Rthe worst in the
country.S Kennedy condemned Pataki for his opposition to plans to
build filtration plants for Putnam County reservoirs that supply much
of the water for metropolitan New York.