FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 9, 2004
CONTACT: Millie Gonzalez
Office of University Relations
908-737-NEWS (6397)
E-mail: mgonzale@kean.edu
1,000 Votes and 1,000
Voices to Sign Up During
Voter Registration Picnic at Kean University
UNION, N.J. – As the 2004 presidential election draws near, Kean University and Democracy Today, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to registering voters, have teamed up for the 1000 Votes, 1000 Voices campaign to boost voter registration among college students. The monthlong event will kick off with a voter-registration picnic on Wednesday, September 15, from noon to 4 p.m. at the Downs Hall Patio, 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, N.J.
According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning
and Engagement, only 16 percent of eligible 18- to 24-year-old citizens
of New Jersey, and only 23 percent nationally, turned out to vote in the
2002 midterm election. With the college-age vote being highly underrepresented,
it is the responsibility of the institutions of higher education to provide
information and resources that enable students to register as is stipulated
by the Higher Education Act of 1998. "One of the main tenets of Kean
University's mission is to teach our students to serve as active and contributing
members of their communities,” said Matthew Caruso, assistant to
Kean University President Dawood Farahi. “Kean students are very
engaged in campus governance. The 1000 Votes, 1000 Voices program
encourages them to carry this involvement into local, state, and national
politics." Through on-campus events, as well as attendance at meetings
and classroom discussions, the goal of 1000 Votes, 1000 Voices
is to register a minimum of 1,000 Kean students by the end of September
so that their voices may also be heard. Already, more than five hundred
Kean students have signed up since the start of the campaign on September
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