Tuesday, September 23, 2008

MTV's "Rock the Vote" at Quinnipiac

The highly apathetic Quinnipiac University has been making efforts to increase the political awareness of its students for years, and the student programming board organized “Rock the Vote” on Friday in Alumni Hall.

In total, there were just over 80 students in attendance and about 30 of the attendees were there for a class. The guest speakers were an hour late due to transportation issues, and only approximately 50 students returned after the delay. When asked about the large amount of empty seats, co-coordinator Mark Miller replied, “I thought there would be a bunch more people. I guess Friday night isn’t a great time to have a program.”

“Rock the Vote” is an MTV inspired idea, which uses music and popular culture to increase political awareness among young adults and encourage them to vote. Two guests from a popular reality television series made a special appearance at the event. Cyrus and Brooke, two cast members from MTV’s Real World: Denver, with the help of Quinnipiac Democratic and Republican committees came to explain to students the importance of every vote.

“I honestly came to see Brooke and Cyrus. I don’t know that much about politics, so I figured this was a good way for me to learn a little and meet them. I think most people that are here are here to see them anyway,” said junior business major Laura Murphy.

“I like to get involved with politics here at school, so I thought I would come check it out, but I don’t think people from the Real World are real appropriate for something like this. They got randomly picked for a reality show. If those are the people that students are actually influenced by, that’s sad,” said junior education major Matt Tremper.

www.rockthevote.com

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