Activism on the rise.THE COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY CRISIS HAS inspired a new movement of student activism. Outraged by soaring college costs, a rise in loan interest rates, and cuts to federal college aid programs, students have taken it upon themselves to advocate for change. The young voter turnout on November 7's midterm elections attests to this. More than two million 18-to-29 year-old Americans voted this year than in the 2002 elections, according to early exit poll analyses. "A new generation of voters has arrived as a force in politics," says Heather Smith, director of Young Voter Strategies Young Voter Strategies is a research organization in the Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University. It analyzes youth voting in the United States and provides prescriptive information to increase turnout from that demographic. (www.youngvoterstrategies.com. "Today's young adults proved that they're a critical voting bloc for both political parties to court--at 42 million strong, this generation will only grow in importance as more and more vote in each election." Many national and student-run organizations helped mobilize student voters in the months before the elections. Some of these include The Campaign for America's Future Campaign for America's Future (CAF) is an American political organization founded by a group of progressive leaders. Its main issues of concern include the environment, energy independence, health care reform, Social Security, education, and congressional accountability. , the United States Student Association The United States Student Association (USSA), founded in 1947, bills itself as the oldest and largest student association in the United States. It has a historical and current commitment to diversity and breaking the barriers to educational access imposed by inequality and , Young Voter Strategies, Campus Progress, USAction, and The American Democracy Project This article is about the AASCU Initiative. Project Mission: The American Democracy Project (ADP) is an initiative of 219 AASCU campuses that seeks to create an intellectual and experiential understanding of civic engagement for undergraduates enrolled at . Grassroots efforts took place at the University of Colorado at Denver
In 1912, the University of Colorado established a downtown Denver campus to meet the needs of the city's rapidly expanding , which staged "a party at the polls" featuring local bands in front of a campus polling station. At College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is an exclusively undergraduate Roman Catholic liberal arts college located in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Holy Cross is the oldest Roman Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest in the United States. (Mass.),x Republican and Democratic students teamed up to organize an absentee voter drive to increase the number of voters. POLITICALLY EMPOWERED A recent survey of 2,546 18-to-24 year-olds conducted by Harvard University's Institute of Politics found that: * Almost three-quarters of students are registered to vote * 60 percent say they follow national politics closely * 35 percent consider themselves to be politically engaged |
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