Did you know that in 2012 college students make up nearly a quarter of eligible voters? Research completed by the Fair Elections Legal Network found that while college students make up such a large percentage of voters, only 22.8 percent under 30 voted in 2010.
Just five weeks before the 2012 presidential election on Wednesday, October 3 students gathered in Pope Lecture Hall for the kick-off event of the Guarini Lecture Series for the 2012-2013 academic year. The event was sponsored by the Saint Peter’s University Guarini Institute for Government and Leadership and featured Sasha Issenberg, journalist and author of a number of books, including the recently published, The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns.
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Issenberg currently serves as the Washington correspondent for Monocle. He has also served as the national political reporter in the Washington bureau of The Boston Globe, and his work has appeared in publications such as New York and The New York Times Magazine, among others. His lecture at Saint Peter’s gave students a behind-the-scenes look at the science of winning a political campaign. “I don’t follow all of the aspects of the current political campaign and although I want to vote, there was something holding me back,” said Wendy Varella ’14, a communication major at Saint Peter’s University. “Attending this lecture gave me the extra push I needed to motivate me to vote. I found the whole event to be very informative and insightful.” |
The event was co-sponsored by the departments of sociology and urban studies, communication, criminal justice, political science, the honors program, the public policy program, the social justice program, the journalism program and the School of Education. Students from all of these areas of study were present and gained insight not only on components of a political campaign, but on the number of professions involved in the campaign process.
From a sociological perspective, Issenberg touched on the concepts of social pressure that can be used to motivate voters. From a communications perspective, he discussed how personal data is used in political campaigns to influence voters. Political science students also had the chance to hear about all of the tactics that make up a political campaign.
Regardless of each student’s major or personal interests, most students left the lecture with a little added motivation to head to the voting booths this November.