Rock the Vote: A SUNY New Paltz Update
First published in October 2012 edition of The Bullhorn. The original publication can be found here.
Politics can be frustrating, but Rock the Vote is certainly not. In fact, as the New Paltz UUP Chapter’s Rock the Vote Coordinator this year, I have recognized, and taken part, in the overwhelming success story of student activism and young voter empowerment on our campus. Rock the Vote is a nation-wide non-partisan effort to mobilize young voters by getting them to register to vote.
Adhering to the advice of former UUP Rock the Vote Coordinator Brian Obach (Sociology), I joined in with efforts already started by the campus NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group) chapter since the beginning of the semester. Their frequent tabling in the Student Union and at the Farmer’s Market, along with brief class presentations, class raps, already made our campus a trailblazer in SUNY Rock the Vote efforts with over eight-hundred registered voters in the past month alone.
After scrambling to publish the September Bullhorn, I started attending NYPIRG meetings every Wednesday at 3 PM in the humble abode of Student Union 426. I found my unique contribution to the effort: a connection with Residence Life because of my previous year on the Residence Hall Student Association Executive Board, advocating for resident interests throughout the campus. Spearheading the Residence Life registration effort, I registered voters through Residence Hall Student Association Associate Council meetings, the same organization’s Spirit Weekend, and coordinated tabling efforts within the residence halls during the evenings of October 9th to 11th.The week tabling in the residence halls will also be crowded with many class raps and a Rock the Vote concert. Taking place on October 10th from noon to 5PM on Hasbrouck Quad, the concert is a strong effort to grab as many voter registrations as possible before the October 12th deadline with local bands and co-sponsored by our UUP chapter.
Another huge success story, nestled between the various triumphs of SUNY New Paltz Rock the Vote efforts throughout the semester, was National Voter Registration Day; September 25th was a well-justified excuse to crank up the registration efforts by both NYPIRG and your UUP Rock the Vote Coordinator. As many NYPIRG interns and helpers were used as possible to spread out our voter registration efforts from the Hasbrouck Dining Hall to the Academic Concourse and other places in between. I stood between the Student Union Atrium and the Coykendall Science Building, attracting potential registrants from lunch or their residence halls to class and visa versa. Considering the campus has registered eight-hundred voters prior to this day, accumulating a dozen voter registration forms alone shows success in encouraging student activism. Overall, we collected a hundred and sixty-seven registrations on this day alone: that is a triumph.
While registering voters in classroom during the final weeks before the deadline, I am amazed at the constant steady flow of filled registration forms. Even after registering nearly a thousand voters on our campus, there are still more voters to register and more students to help engage in the most fundamental activism: voting. The strength of Rock the Vote, an effort to accumulate a mass of young voters, can only be formed with each individual registration and each individual effort to be some sort of activist in this increasingly political world.
Adhering to the advice of former UUP Rock the Vote Coordinator Brian Obach (Sociology), I joined in with efforts already started by the campus NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group) chapter since the beginning of the semester. Their frequent tabling in the Student Union and at the Farmer’s Market, along with brief class presentations, class raps, already made our campus a trailblazer in SUNY Rock the Vote efforts with over eight-hundred registered voters in the past month alone.
After scrambling to publish the September Bullhorn, I started attending NYPIRG meetings every Wednesday at 3 PM in the humble abode of Student Union 426. I found my unique contribution to the effort: a connection with Residence Life because of my previous year on the Residence Hall Student Association Executive Board, advocating for resident interests throughout the campus. Spearheading the Residence Life registration effort, I registered voters through Residence Hall Student Association Associate Council meetings, the same organization’s Spirit Weekend, and coordinated tabling efforts within the residence halls during the evenings of October 9th to 11th.The week tabling in the residence halls will also be crowded with many class raps and a Rock the Vote concert. Taking place on October 10th from noon to 5PM on Hasbrouck Quad, the concert is a strong effort to grab as many voter registrations as possible before the October 12th deadline with local bands and co-sponsored by our UUP chapter.
Another huge success story, nestled between the various triumphs of SUNY New Paltz Rock the Vote efforts throughout the semester, was National Voter Registration Day; September 25th was a well-justified excuse to crank up the registration efforts by both NYPIRG and your UUP Rock the Vote Coordinator. As many NYPIRG interns and helpers were used as possible to spread out our voter registration efforts from the Hasbrouck Dining Hall to the Academic Concourse and other places in between. I stood between the Student Union Atrium and the Coykendall Science Building, attracting potential registrants from lunch or their residence halls to class and visa versa. Considering the campus has registered eight-hundred voters prior to this day, accumulating a dozen voter registration forms alone shows success in encouraging student activism. Overall, we collected a hundred and sixty-seven registrations on this day alone: that is a triumph.
While registering voters in classroom during the final weeks before the deadline, I am amazed at the constant steady flow of filled registration forms. Even after registering nearly a thousand voters on our campus, there are still more voters to register and more students to help engage in the most fundamental activism: voting. The strength of Rock the Vote, an effort to accumulate a mass of young voters, can only be formed with each individual registration and each individual effort to be some sort of activist in this increasingly political world.
