Talking Stick - July/August 2008 - (Page 60)

38 CONTINUED When Politics Come to Your Town sponsor programs for presidential debate viewing as well as large-scale events for things such as Super Tuesday results and November results with donkey and elephant cookie decorating,” according to Kyle O’Dell, assistant director of residence life. Montclair State University’s “Rocky the Vote” campaign in New Jersey involves their mascot Rocky and plays off MTV’s Rock the Vote Campaign. Arika Easley, a community director, tells us that “Pizza and Politics” discussions have been popular; in addition, a panel was held with New Jersey legislative leaders to get students involved in state elections. At the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, “Our staff does programs around either debates or election times,” says Holly Alexander Agati, assistant director of residence life. “Typically, it is either bulletin boards or a debate in their community. They tend to lay out the pros and cons for each of the candidates.” Mixing politics and higher education can get a bit sticky at times. That’s why many campuses have implemented campaign policies, such as the Campaign Visibility Area Guidelines at Dartmouth College. The intent is “to provide campaigns and other groups with an area to express their free speech rights” (www.dartmouth.edu/debates/news/cva. html). This impacts residence life by including provisions that restrict signs and banners on buildings. At Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, they employ a no-pay policy, as Lisa Currie, the director of health education, explains: “Wes has a policy of not officially sponsoring or paying for costs associated with any candidate visits, in keeping with regs for non-profits. One or two state reps stumping for a particular presidential candidate have appeared on campus by booking/paying for their own appearances.” Voter Registration A main component of many schools’ political involvement campaigns is registering students to vote. The process gets quite creative, too. John Carroll’s O’Dell explains their method: “We offer voter registration cards at any diversity or social justice programs to assist people who feel moved to vote.” And Alvin Sturdivant, Ed.D., the associate director of residential life at the University of Vermont in Burlington, comments, “Residential Life has provided training opportunities that allow for our staff to become Notaries, therefore having the ability to directly assist in the voter registration process in the state of Vermont and to host very intentional voter registration drives in the halls.” Bloomfield College in New Jersey held mock primary elections in February to increase voter education and participation. Students were encouraged to vote for their candidate of choice via an online balloting system while also being exposed to voter registration information. At Montclair, different student groups are encouraged to staff tables in two campus locations several times each week, offering information about voter registration, elections, and candidates. Beloit College students who attend the fall sophomore retreat at the Wisconsin campus are also given an opportunity to register to vote as part of the retreat agenda. There are some other interesting variations on the process of increasing voter registration on campus. Joseph Maddalone, a 19-year-old student at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, founded Voice Your Choice, an incentive program where registered voters receive 10 percent discounts at participating businesses by showing their voter identification card. “I want to use Scranton as a model for this program to spread to other cities across the country,” he tells The Scranton Times-Tribune. “Basically, the best way to describe it is as an online Facebook or phone book of businesses that give this kind of discount. It gives you a reason to get involved in the process.” That is often what students are looking for – a reason to get involved in the political process. The discussions that occur during debates, focus groups, and cookie bakes on campus are meeting students where they are. In the months leading up to Election Day, it will be interesting to see how residential involvement – and the elections – pan out. ts Julie Phillips is the managing editor for PaperClip Communications in Schenectady, New York. 0 Talking Stick http://www.dartmouth.edu/debates/news/cva.html http://www.dartmouth.edu/debates/news/cva.html

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - July/August 2008

Talking Stick - July/August 2008 Contents Online Now Vision Just In Your ACUHO-I Transitions Res Life Facilities Business Calendar When Politics Come to Your Town Support System Conversations First Takes Reporting Out New Members Snapshot

Talking Stick - July/August 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.