How to Educate College Students on Campus About the Presidential Election

As the presidential election draws closer, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain will be fighting for the presidential nomination. All across the nation, young people are showing up in record turnouts to vote, and it is Barack Obama who has had the most to gain as a result. On college campuses, college students have risen to the challenge and have tried to soak up as much information about the presidential election as possible.

That challenge is one that has been met by political organizations like College Democrats and College Republicans. The interesting thing to note here is that the state Democratic and Republican parties haven't really put much emphasis in these college political groups which are so vital to young voters. Instead of helping political college groups in the form of financial contributions or arranging for candidates to visit their college campus, it has been the college democrats, college republicans and New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) who have risen to the occasion, demanding to be better and more influential on their own college campus rather than wait for their party leaders to finally wake up and do something to change the way young voters have participated in the political process in the past.

So how exactly have these political groups on college campus affected the way college students view the presidential election? Well the first thing they have done is to hold more events and program to educate students about their party's candidates for the presidential election. These events have included debates, forums, bringing guest speakers from the campaigns to campus, talking to the media about politics, and rock the vote events which come in the form of concerts and voter raising awareness activities.

College Democrat and College Republican groups have gotten together on college campuses to debate each other on the issues being discussed in the presidential debates and speeches by the politicians running for office. These debates and forums have allowed students to ask questions and find our more information about the candidates that their classes don't teach them and their professors don't take the time to talk to students about, especially at a time when it has captivated our nation. Debates and forums between the two groups have received huge turnouts from the student body and such events usually involve professors or administrators moderating or helping plan and carry out the event. By having administrators and professors participate in such events, it gives more of an incentive for students to come and it gives such events more credibility.

Another popular tool that college political groups have utilized is rallies in favor of a political candidate. These rallies are fairly simply to plan and the political organizations have taken advantage of these opportunities to garner media attention and raise support for their party's candidate. At the same time, these activities have increased their group's general body membership. Finally, these political events have also gotten more college students to register to vote and take part in the voting process.