November 05, 2008
After months of planning, hosting candidate forums, voter
registration drives and engaging fellow students to the election
process, St. John’s University’s College Democrats, College
Republicans and Student Government Inc., along with St. John’s
administrators came together for a viewing of the Presidential
Election results last night on the Queens and Staten Island
campuses. The events were part of the Participate in ’08
initiative.
Photo
Gallery
An initial crowd of over 100 strong sat patiently and watched
live television network coverage on two big screens as projections
and state results poured in. Most of the group stayed through the
late night hour to hear the final results and historic announcement
that Illinois Senator Barack Obama had been declared the winner and
44th President of the United States. As the new President-Elect
gave his victory speech (a few minutes past 12:00 a.m. EST) – a
large throng of resident students scurried across the Queens campus
to pile into Council Hall (doubling the number of students to 250+)
to hear the historic speech by Senator Obama.
One could only think that the real winners on this night were
the millions of voters who came out in record numbers across the
country for this much anticipated election, and one common theme
throughout was a resurgent youth vote that created an election
buzz. This hit home with St. John’s students who gathered in
Council Hall in Queens to their University brethren across the
Verrazano Bridge who assembled in the Campus Center in Staten
Island.
“As predicted the turnout of young voters (ages 18-29) appears
to have played a pivotal part in the outcome of this year’s
Presidential election. Early exit polls are indicating that
this year one in 10 voters was voting for the very first time and
overall one in seven voters were under the age of 30,” said Brian
Browne, Assistant Vice President for Government Relations at St.
John’s, who served as one of the University administrators that
helped assist with the Participate in ’08 effort. “Clearly young
voters made a difference and that was an early and consistent theme
of the Participate in’08 effort, which stressed the active
participation of young voters who had the potential to make a real
difference in our political process.”
The Participate in ’08 campaign evolved this past summer as a
major student-driven initiative to encourage non-partisan voter
registration and increase civic education and engagement in
anticipation of the 2008 Presidential Election in November. The
determination and passion exhibited by these student groups, who
worked tireless hours, led to the ultimate success of this
endeavor. Due to the relentlessness of this initiative, the College
Democrats and College Republicans were responsible for registering
more than 700 new voters.
“We are extremely proud of our self-initiated Participate in ’08
campaign as we have not seen such enthusiasm in a long time on the
part of our Young Democrats and Republicans,” added Joseph Sciame,
Vice President for Community Relations at St. John’s, who also
assisted as University liaison for the initiative. “It was a most
successful effort in the civic and political processes of our city,
state and country.”
The student enthusiasm was evident throughout the process and
featured events that carried the Participate in ’08 flag during
this fall semester.
The major highlights included: a Young Republicans and Young
Democrats Debate sponsored by the Office of the Provost, a
first-ever St. John’s Local Candidates Forum held this past
September inviting elected officials and candidates running for
office in Queens to St. John’s to speak out on their respective
platforms before the University student body. In addition, a Three
College Lecture Series sponsored by St. John’s University’s Staten
Island campus, Wagner College and the College of Staten Island was
born. Lee Brenner, Executive Producer of Political Programming
& Director of IMPACT, MySpace.com kicked-off the series at St.
John’s on September 23.
Interested media representatives are asked to call Dominic
Scianna, Assistant Vice President for Media Relations at St. John’s
University at (718) 990-6185 or e-mail inquiries to sciannad@stjohns.edu. For
information about the Participate in ’08 initiative visit the web
site at www.stjohns.edu/paticipatein08. For the
latest news and information regarding St. John’s visit the
University web site at www.stjohns.edu/news.