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Ben Young / Photo Editor
Junior Jason McGensy reads some infomation pasted on teh Freedom wall outside the Waves Cafe.
Pepperdine is setting the standard on voting in college.
With the development of a new PepperdineXpress channel, Pepperdine became the first university in the United States to provide online voter registration as a student service, said University Portal Manager Candace Jones.
Over the summer, the PepperdineXpress team partnered with Rock the Vote, a non-profit organization focused on engaging youth in the political process, to offer comprehensive online resources on student voting rights and voter registration.
The new Web site aims to provide students with all the tools they need to participate in the civic duty of voting, said Danielle Killian, former communication specialist for Web and Multimedia Services.
“There was no other school in the nation that was doing what we were doing,” said Killian, a graduate of the School of Public Policy, who spearheaded the movement to make voter registration available to University students Online. “We were the first. Voter registration, especially youth voter registration, is an obsession of mine. I think it’s very important for people, regardless of what political viewpoint you have, to get out there and be involved in the process. That’s what a democracy is all about.”
The Web page, which became available in early July, features access to online voter registration forms, information on student voting rights and links to official presidential campaign sites. Users can also access the secure Web pages of student political groups like the College Republicans, the Young Democrats and the Young Libertarians.
Online surveys encouraging student awareness and voter education are scheduled to appear within the site on Sept. 27, Jones said.
Killian said the PepperdineXpress team wanted to create a medium that would increase young voter participation, especially in the target age range of 18 to 25, which traditionally has very low turnout rates.
In the last presidential election, only 7.8 percent of the electorate was between the ages of 18 and 25, according to a study by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
On campus, the voter registration tool has already begun to stir up political interest.
According to Web and Multimedia Services, one week after launching the voter registration channel on PepperdineXpress, 37 students joined the various student political organizations on campus. After one month, membership rates in each of the groups had more than doubled.
Since then, 164 students have utilized the voter registration tool in PepperdineXpress and 130 students have registered to vote, Jones said.
She said that although Web and Multimedia Services monitors usage statistics to gauge the channel’s effectiveness, they do not maintain records or monitor the specific information a student supplies.
The development of the new channel came after renewed attention to legislation put increased pressure on American universities to provide voter registration to students.
The Help America Vote Act of 2002 formed the Election Assistance Commission, a new federal agency for election administration information. The HAVA also provided funds to states to improve election administration and update voting systems.
“This law offered incentives to get certain segments of the population out to vote,” said Killian. “Usually, these are people who haven’t been aware of their voting rights in the past.”
A second act, the Higher Education Act, which was amended in 1998, required many universities to request enough voter registration forms to supply all enrolled students. Schools were also required to demonstrate a “good faith effort” in making the forms widely available to all students at that university.
According to Carl Flynn, communication specialist for the Office of Student Information and Services, an article published by The Chronicle of Higher Education in August about the Higher Education Act stirred interest in the law at OneStop.
“This article raised concern in our office and we consulted the legal department to clarify the law and our responsibility as an institution,” Flynn said.
“As we continued to communicate with others about the article, we found that there was already an effort underway that would more than fulfill the ‘good faith effort’ that appeared to be required by the Act through our PepperdineXpress portal,” Flynn said.
He said it was quickly discovered that Killian had been working with representatives from Rock the Vote all along to create the voter registration channel.
Killian said the fact Pepperdine was not entirely aware of the Higher Education Act when it began working on the project demonstrates the school’s commitment to its students’ voting rights.
“It’s not something they were doing to meet a minimum requirement,” she said. “It’s something that the school really cares about.”
So far, unregistered students have begun to take notice of the new PepperdineXpress channel and some said they would consider using it to register to vote.
“Although I’m not registered, if I was to register to vote I would definitely do it through PepperdineXpress because it’s easy and all you have to do is click on the site,” junior Katie Brophy said.
Sophomore Christina Alonso expressed a similar opinion.
“I will definitely register online,” she said. Because she is studying overseas in Argentina, Alonso will log on from Pepperdine’s International program in Florence. “This is a huge development and I’m glad it’s available to us.”
SGA President Carl Kasalek, who worked to develop Pepperdine’s relationship with Rock the Vote, said he “would like to see a political spark on this campus. We have some of the brightest minds in the world attending this institution, and I feel it has been missing that spark to get these people involved and expressing their thoughts.”
Students will have the opportunity to register through the Rock the Vote portal on PepperdineXpress until one week before the election, in accordance with federal voter registration policies. After that, the channel will provide election coverage.
Submitted 09-16-2004
MALIBU, CA
