With statewide and local elections quickly approaching, one University class is taking action to educate students about the candidates and the issues involved.
Lilly Allen, an associate professor in the School of Social Work, said her class has worked hard to produce the Project Vote Web site to help inform the University community about Saturday’s elections.
The site has a link on the LSU home page in the campus news and events box, and the class will be handing out informational brochures when students return to campus after Fall Break.
David Jennings, one of the second-year social work graduate students in the class, said the purpose of the informational site is to let people know elections are near. He said the site also displays links to other Web sites which will educate them about the elections.
Jennings said the class hopes the site will raise awareness and remind students to vote.
Several members of the class said the project started as a large class assignment and turned into the class’s pet project that many of them have become passionate about.
Rick Taylor, another student in the class, said their efforts to inform voters and raise awareness are part of their “civil responsibility.”
Jeannette Adams said she and the other students are using the slogan “Don’t let somebody else tell you what to do” to motivate people to vote. She said too many people dismiss their personal voting privileges and do not allow themselves to have a say in government.
Adams said the point of the class project is to stress voter education because many people do not know enough about the issues or the candidates. The class members want students to enter the booths knowing exactly who and what they are voting for.
The graduate-level class is a Distance Education course in which students in Alexandria and Natchitoches participate through compressed video.
A number of television sets suspended above the classroom and microphones at each person’s seat aid the class in communicating among the three locations.
While the students in Baton Rouge have put together the Web site and the brochures, the class participants in Natchitoches and Alexandria also have been working hard.
Students in both of the remote locations have passed out fliers, talked to high school seniors and produced their own educational brochures to help educate Louisianians about the election.
The Baton Rouge students’ brochures include the “Top 10 Reasons to Register and Vote,” voter registration information and other general information about voting.
Voters interested in learning more about the candidates and issues in Saturday’s election can visit the site at www.socialwork.lsu.edu/projectvote.htm and look for the social work graduate students who will be handing out brochures in Free Speech Alley and near CEBA Monday Oct. 6.