Campus Winner
Month: November 2008

NACURH, INC.

Educational Program of the Month
Pizza and Politics

School: Drake University Region: MACURH
Person in charge: Jacob Van Sickle, Munashe Kaseke Nominator: Kaitlyn Cooper
Address: 1319 30th St.
Des Moines, IA 50311
Address: 1319 30th St
Des Moines, IA 50311
Phone: 515.418.2468 Phone: 515.418.4238
Email: jacob.vansickle@drake.edu Email: kaitlyn.cooper@drake.edu

Target Population: 250 Time Needed to Organize: 3 days
Number of People in Attendance: 65 Date(s) of Program: November 4th
Number of People Needed to Organize: 2 Cost of Program: $146.58
On-Campus Population: 1700 Chapter Size: 20

Origin of Program:

Jacob VanSickle the 2nd floor Stalnaker RA decided to do an educational program on the elections.

Word Count: 16


Please give a short description of the program:

Three days before the 2009 Presidential Elections, RA Jacob Vansickle conducted a mock election at the front desk in Stalnaker Hall. Residents were able to vote for their Presidential Candidate of choice. The day of the elections the results were tallied to show how the residents of Stalnaker hall would likely vote in the elections. The results were very close, with Obama winning by only a few votes. This helped to build excitement for the evening program "Pizza and Politics."

During the evening of November 4th RAs Jacob and Munashe set up the hall lobby with a projector screen that showed the voting results of each state as they came in. The tv was also broadcasting the election results and commentary. Jacob and Munashe had purchased snacks and pizza to bring students to the event. Students from every floor attended and many stayed in the lobby to watch the elections for hours. All of the hall staff was in attendance and the residents from every floor spent time talking about the elections with one another and meeting students from other floors.

When the election results came in many students cheered and some were sad, but there was still a feeling of camaraderie in the lobby. It was a time to learn about the views of those who are different than you as well as experience an exciting event together as a hall.

Word Count: 232


Goals of the program:

The Stalnaker mock elections helped to advertise that students should get out and vote. On Tuesday morning when the results of the mock election were posted and found to be very close, it helped the students feel a sense of urgency in needing to vote.

The goal of the Pizza and Politics evening program was to get students watching the election results and commentary. Another goal was to bring the students together as a hall, and help them to meet people from other floors. A third goal was for students to discuss political topics and learn about people who think differently.

Word Count: 101


Positive and lasting effects of the program:

The students were able to learn about each other and the different opinions and viewpoints represented in the hall. They were also able to meet people from other floor and spend time building better friendships with the hall staff in an informal setting.

Students also learned about the importance of being active in politics because the results of the election were close.

Word Count: 62


Short evaluation of the program:

Overall the program was very successful. There was great attendance, and beyond the numbers many students stayed for many hours to hang out, watch the elections and discuss politics. The program helped the students to see the importance of involvement and to learn more about themselves and others.

Word Count: 48


How could this program be adapted to other campuses?

I think a fun part of the program that could be adapted to other campuses was the mock elections that were held before the actual elections. The mock elections helped to build interest and excitement and would be very easy for any campus to do, even for smaller scale elections.

It would also be nice for other campuses to adopt the program of watching politics on tv with their residents because it promotes activism. It would be very easy to adapt, all that is needed is a tv, and some snacks and interested students!

Word Count: 94



Date of entry into database: 2008-12-02 14:53:43