Cal State Long Beach Associated Student Inc. is working on plans with Cal State Fullerton to organize a competition between the schools over who can register more students for this November’s state elections.
This year’s student registration drive figures to benefit from a little spicy rivalry according to ASI president James Ahumada. By Sept. 25, Ahumada envisions a campaign centered around the slogan, “Tank the Titans.”
Fullerton will launch a similar campaign with the slogan, “Beat the Beach.”
This is the first time such a competition has taken place between the two campuses, but Ahumada said he can already see students getting fired up about it.
“What we noticed when we were doing voter registration, a lot of the time people want to register but they’re in a rush, but what always makes them take a second thought, what we saw during dorm move-ins and throughout the week, is when [you tell them] ‘you know we’re competing with Fullerton.'”
Ahumada said he was inspired to organize the competition during a leadership camp run by Leon Panetta, former Chief-of-Staff under Bill Clinton. During the camp he met Joe Lopez, the student body president of Fullerton. They “challenged” each other to work together on the voter drive and have been coordinating ever since.
He envisions a different kind of registration drive from past years, by involving the entire campus community to sign people up. ASI is working with college presidents, the athletic department, housing and Residential Life, and the California Faculty Association to create consistency while also targeting issues relevant to specific groups of students.
“On this campus I’ve seen a few different styles a lot of them are very heavy in the fall… they’ve been very ASI heavy. This year, from the get go, we’ve tried to communicate with the college councils and different university departments to make it more of a collaborative effort,” Ahumada said.
To spur greater collaboration, ASI is working with the presidents of various college councils to produce targeted advertisements, while maintaining a consistent over-arching theme of “More the Numbers.” Targeted ads will provide information about specific propositions that would be of particular relevance to students in a given college.
“For example one of the colleges mentioned that prop 23 would be more relevant to their college because they care a lot about saving the environment right now so if they put that one there… that may draw up more attention from their students than, let’s say, something about redistricting,” Ahumada said.
In addition to the sign up tables outside the residence hall cafeterias, ASI also plans to work with the athletic department to tap into a long sports rivalry between the schools. There are plans to have a large sign up event at the women’s volleyball game against Fullerton on Sept 25, Ahumada said.
ASI is considering plans to host a series of debates and discussions around campus to further gain student interest and provide sign up events. ASI is considering the “Beer and Politics” event that took place last spring in the Nugget for their drive this year.
“Beer and Politics” would involve debates held in the Nugget with sign up tables nearby to capture piqued political interest, Ahumada said.
Ahumada said that ASI will strive for a politically neutral voter drive.
“The key with that is that it’s all unbiased. We’re just trying to get the information out there one way or the other,” Ahumada said. “The only thing that we talk about as ASI is higher education; always keep that in mind whenever you vote.”
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