Through hard work and productive efforts in registering young voters, East Central University was the winner in the White Division of the Oklahoma Campus Compact’s 2014 Voter Registration Contest.
Students in Dr. Christine Pappas’ service learning American Government class spent one week hosting a voting registration booth on campus. Each student was required to find two other students to register. The result was 260 total registered voters on campus.
“I am extremely proud of my students and I know they became experts on voter registration and voting in the process,” said Pappas. “I think the root of our success was letting the students take the lead. I have found that college students are much more likely to register to vote when asked by a peer.”
The White Division consisted of institutions with enrollment between 3,001 and 7,000 students. Eastern Oklahoma State College won the Red Division (institutions between 1 to 3,000 students) and the University of Central Oklahoma won the Blue Division (7,001 to 30,000 students).
Twenty-one member institutions of the Oklahoma Campus Compact participated in the 2014 Voter Registration Contest, registering 3,312 in-state and out-of-state students to vote and setting a new record in an off-presidential election year for both institutional and student registration.
Student leaders, faculty, staff and administrators from the seven winning institutions (winners and runners-up), who were responsible for the victory received award recognition at the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Dec. 4 meeting.
More than 27,000 students have been registered to vote as part of the contest since its inception in 2003.
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