Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The Dole Institute of Politics proposed that students “Get Engaged” with politics this semester. To encourage involvement, the Institute will show the final presidential debate tonight at 7:30, with a discussion to follow.
Civic Engagement Week, which spanned almost three weeks, began on Sept. 26 with the first presidential debate and included more than 30 events and programs. The final event, a debate watch party called “The Final Debate: What Do the Undecideds Think?”, will take place today.
Barbara Ballard, assistant director for outreach at the Dole Institute, said the point of Civic Engagement Week was to get students involved at their schools and communities.
Jill Nowak, McPherson freshman, Anna Frantz, Topeka junior, and Kelsey Hill, Hoxie sophomore are seen Tuesday morning volunteering at the Jubilee Cafe located at First United Methodist Church, which is a service that provides breakfast to in-need members of the Lawrence community. Johnathan Leck, Washington senior, who is the co-coordinatior of the Center for Community Outreach at KU, said that they usually see between twenty five and thirty KU students volunteer at the cafe twice a week.
“After they graduate we want them to be involved in the communities in which they live,” Ballard said.
Scheduled civic engagement events included debate watches, visits to campus by political candidates, “On the Issues” discussions, Jubilee Café breakfasts and study groups with Dole Fellows Joe Gaylord and Ray Strother.
Clarissa Unger, Colby senior and Democratic delegate for Kansas, said she thought the presidential election helped bring attention to events the Dole Institute sponsored.
Unger said the study groups with Gaylord and Strother saw sizeable increases in attendance from last year. Normally, she said, about 20 students attended, but this year 40 to 50 students did.
“Gaylord’s focus has been on the basics of campaigns,” Unger said. “He’s brought in experts on running campaigns and how they work from the inside.”
Unger said Strother’s focus had been on political communications and the different ways campaigns tried to get out their messages.
Several student organizations also teamed up with the Dole Institute during this presidential election year.
Michael Gray, Buhler junior and Student Legislative Awareness Board legislative director, said the event “Rock the Vote” had been very successful durig the past month. SLAB and Student Union Activities sponsored “Rock the Vote.” Specifically, SLAB sponsored “On the Issues” sessions for discussions about health care and energy sustainability.
Gray said field practitioners and politicians who came to the Dole Institute discussed what might happen with health care and the environment once Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) become president.
He also said he thought the abundance of student involvement was related to 2008 being an election year.
“It brings high interests to campus and hopefully with programs like we’ve had in civic engagement, we will continue to inspire students,” Gray said.
Alex Rock, Lawrence senior and student advisory board coordinator for the Dole Institute, said although many students had registered to vote, many still needed to.
“There’s been great participation as far as registration goes — such a good amount of people that it makes it exciting,” Rock said.
Rock said a discussion would be held after the final presidential debate tonight.
“I think it’s a good time to voice your own opinions,” Rock said. He said the discussion might help clear doubts for undecided student voters.
Rock said that on Oct. 23 the student advisory board would play host to a segment on the Kansas City news radio station KMBZ-AM on channel 980.
Ballard said civic engagement was not only about involvement, but was a way of life.
“It’s just as important for students to know how to be polite and get along with people and agree to disagree,” Ballard said. “Students do make a difference.”
Gray said SLAB would continue its voter registration efforts in front of Wescoe Hall until the deadline on Oct. 20.
The SLAB table will be set up Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Monday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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