This election cycle, I helped organize a group of students to volunteer for the Democratic Party in my town. I go to school at Juniata College, a small liberal arts school in Huntingdon, PA. It also happens to be one of the reddest areas of the state, yet through our campus organizing effort we were able to
pull off a Democratic GOTV effort that was unprecedented for our town.
College campuses can automatically provide a strong source for Democratic organizing, especially in areas such as central Pennsylvania. Huntingdon is an incredibly small town and has a Democratic Committee that is under funded and uninspired. However, colleges often have students from out of town that share progressive values and would be more than willing to work on campaigns if they were properly motivated.
Many colleges already have structures in place that can be tapped. College Democrats, Young Democrats, and other liberal campus organizations can be a useful starting place to find campaign workers. I personally know that as a student, I would be incredibly enthusiastic if a campaign had approached me first instead of searching for them myself.
Not only are college campuses useful for recruiting volunteers, they also offer a large range of resources that students can use for the campaign. This election, we rented laptops and headsets from our school's technology center and used
Skype, an online telephone service that offers free local calls, to phone bank. Most campuses have wireless internet that students have access to, not to mention all the printing and copying capabilities available.
By organizing volunteers on our small college campus and using all the resources available to us as college students, we were able to pull of a successful Get Out the Vote campaign, especially in the Republican stronghold of central Pennsylvania. This example can be replicated in college campuses around the country if the Democratic Party and local campaigns foster campus organizations and encourage student participation in campaigns.