Why Participate 2010?

A major initiative of “PARTICIPATE 2010” is to encourage students to register to vote.  Non-partisan voter registration drives will be scheduled on campus and voter registration information will be made widely available to the entire campus community to encourage increased participation in the political process. 

Campus voter registration and awareness campaigns are making a significant difference in the political process.  Since 2000, voter turnout among college-educated youth has increased by 12% and non-college youth turnout jumped by 9%. In 2008, the turnout rate of college-educated 18 to 29 year-olds was 62%, a significant 26% higher than the rate of non-college youth, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.  It is critical that students from St. John’s University be informed and engaged in the political process and that starts with Registering and Voting!

The St. John’s University College Democrats and St. John’s University College Republicans will sponsor and post interesting student-driven events as well as academic lectures, guest speakers and University-sponsored programs will be linked on this web page www.stjohns.edu/participate to give their peers and young voters’ opportunities to learn more about candidates and major issues in advance of the 2010 Election.

The “PARTICIPATE 2010” web page will contain timely news articles about the Democratic and Republican campaigns, observations from both parties as well as relevant web links, blogs and message boards.