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Rutgers students speak with authority on the youth vote
Watch Rutgers students discuss the youth vote on NBC's TODAYThe rest of the nation had a chance to witness the political acumen and passion of Rutgers students last week in a segment aired on NBC’s TODAY show, discussing the role of the youth vote in the 2008 presidential campaign and issues that matter to young people.
“I truly am amazed at the number of students involved in politics,” said Nadia Brown, a 25-year-old doctoral student in political science, after the TODAY shoot. “We – the millennials – are usually characterized as being apathetic. But for the most part we are students who are and want to be engaged.”
TODAY co-anchor Natalie Morales, a 1993 graduate of Rutgers’ School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, interviewed the diverse panel of students, all of whom have worked closely with the Eagleton Institute of Politics. The shoot took place at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences building on the Cook Campus.
Eagleton is highlighting and encouraging youth political participation through a variety of programs, including RU Voting, a coalition of college student groups, and the Youth Political Participation Program (YPPP), which focuses on middle and high school students.
“We made a big push in 2004 to educate Rutgers students about the political process,” said Randi Chmielewski, an event coordinator at Eagleton. “It has continued in every election cycle since then. So in 2008, the youth are already engaged.”
Malissa Pansa-ad, who participates in YPPP and was featured in the TODAY show segment, said that students are enthusiastic about this year’s presidential election.
“They are definitely paying attention, because it’s just impossible to escape,” said Pansa-ad, a 21-year-old junior majoring in political science. “There is so much going on, especially with everything that’s going on around campus. Students are definitely buzzing.”
RU Voting has been part of the buzz. They have provided students with a one-stop information depot on the Web, offering instructions on how to register to vote, finding the appropriate polling station, and voting by absentee ballot. The site offers clarity on the sometimes confusing matter of where students should vote – at home or on campus.
The group also pulls together support from student groups, academic departments, and administrative offices to hold informational events, like voter registration drives or the late January panel of campaign representatives discussing the issues.
Rutgers undergraduates also work with high school students
from New Brunswick and Perth Amboy high schools as part of YPPP. A
new YPPP citizenship training initiative called RU Ready sends teams of Rutgers students into high schools, where the groups work
with seniors to cultivate their civic interest and participation, teach them
how to be leaders in their communities, and follow political campaigns. In
April, the high school students will come to Rutgers
for a two-day Young Leaders Conference.
“We want to further the notion that you can not only be a participant in your community, but you also can be a leader,” said YPPP coordinator Elizabeth Matto. “It has been very transformative for our Rutgers students also. They really do feel as if they are making an impact.”
The students who participated in the TODAY segment are associated with Eagleton’s host of programs – some were undergraduate associates, others worked closely with the Center for American Women in Politics.
They represented both Republican and Democratic supporters. Some were undecided; others were firmly for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney or U.S. Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. They named economy and the war in Iraq among their top concerns in politics today.
All were well-versed on the politicians’ stances on the issues, and all were vociferously optimistic about the enthusiasm and young people’s participation the 2008 elections. When Morales asked if the much ballyhooed youth vote would show up to the polls during the primary season and in November, the answer was a unanimous and unequivocal “yes.”
“As we’ve seen in the primaries so far, this year there has been an overwhelming amount of new registered voters,” said Jennifer D’Autrechy, a 24-year-old University College Community senior who works full time as a treasurer to several Republican campaigns in New Jersey. “All of the presidential campaigns have been going to universities and really speaking to college students.”
The Internet certainly played a role in the 2004 presidential election, with the budding “netroots” just beginning to blossom and websites like MoveOn.org weighing in. But interactive technology – “Web 2.0” – has taken off since then, and the explosive popularity of social networking sites like MySpace, Digg, Facebook, and YouTube among young people has changed the way these voters get information about candidates and issues.
All the candidates have official MySpace and Facebook groups, and their legions of supporters use the site to organize around geography or special interests. YouTube partnered with CNN this campaign cycle to sponsor a series of debates in which questions came in the form of YouTube videos. Television personalities monitor discussions on Facebook for special Internet-only programming.
“Most students have found a way to connect themselves to the campaign,” said Brown, a Piscataway native and resident who received her bachelor’s degree in 2004 from Howard University. “These [students interviewed on TODAY] are the students that take the initiative to find out; but this is the first time in history we’ve ever seen politicians using new media.” Brown said that, like all of the students interviewed, she has “friended” political candidates on Facebook, enabling her to receive regular news and event updates.
But the importance of young people in political campaigns predates the social networking boom on the Internet, D’Autrechy would like to point out.
“Campaigns have always relied on youth for internships and GOTV [get-out-the-vote] efforts,” said D’Autrechy, a political science major and philosophy minor originally from Marlton. “A lot of campaigns wouldn’t be able to survive without the help of willing young people. This year, the campaigns won’t only rely on them for work; they will rely on them for their votes as well.”