AGENCY TESTIMONY
NYPIRG's student-led voter engagement initiatives at CUNY
0:11:34
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4 min
Megan Ahearn, Program Director of NYPIRG, testifies about the organization's successful student-led voter engagement initiatives at CUNY campuses. She emphasizes the effectiveness of peer-to-peer outreach and describes NYPIRG's model of student leadership in civic engagement activities.
- NYPIRG registered over 10,000 students to vote in 2023, with 7,000 at CUNY alone
- The organization uses face-to-face outreach, classroom presentations, and social media campaigns to engage students
- NYPIRG's board of directors is composed of students who shape programs that resonate with their peers
Megan Ahearn
0:11:34
Thank you, Chair of Denowitz and members of the committee on higher education for the opportunity to testify today.
0:11:42
My name is Megan Ahern.
0:11:43
I'm program director for Nye perg were a statewide, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded and directed by college students founded in 1973 at Queens College to engage their peers in civic life.
0:11:59
And I'll start with a quote, no one can better scout out effective and promising methods of engaging young people than young people themselves.
0:12:07
That observation is borne out by research, supporting the value of students, reaching students, and doing so face to face.
0:12:15
Nye perks model brings this concept to life.
0:12:18
Our board of directors, as Ben stated, is students elected from college campuses with Nye perks chapters.
0:12:24
There's 9 here in CUNY, 10 across the city, and 15 across the state, including SUNY and Pratt As bona fide directors of a nonprofit organization, students on the board shape a program that resonates with students because students choose it.
0:12:41
By working with our full time on campus organizing professionals, students learn skills such as how to most effectively conduct 1 on 1 educational outreach to communicate with media outlets, organize educational events, and deliver compelling public speeches.
0:12:57
Neibro students across the state reached tens of thousands of their peers face to face each year and in doing so systematically learn about their peers' interests and introduce easy ways entryways into civic engagement to the student body at large.
0:13:13
They could be walking down the hall to class and all of a sudden there.
0:13:18
Looking at a clipboard with a registration form on it, and such starts their their journey into civic engagement.
0:13:30
Hundreds of thousands of students have registered to vote, registered others to vote, and built their civic participation through NIPEG and our goal of our democracy project is to teach students how to raise the volume of the student voice by registering thousands of new voters and encouraging those voters in those already registered to turn out to the polls.
0:13:50
When Nipper County votes and CUNY Colleges work in tandem with Nipper's staff and students meeting with administrators, coordinating with student student affairs, collaborating with faculty and student governments and student clubs, the results are reflected in the impressive number of Q And A deforms submitted to the board of elections each year.
0:14:10
In 2023, our registration drive registered over 10,000 students to vote, 7000 at Q And A alone, and assisted thousands of students to double check that they were adequately registered, checking their registration status.
0:14:26
In a presidential election year such as this, the buzz builds earlier during the last non COVID presidential action year, Napier registered nearly 20,000 students to vote, and we're on pace this year to to reach that, if not, surpass that.
0:14:43
So far, we've registered nearly 48100 students to vote in just two and a half weeks.
0:14:49
So with the guidance of NiPerk's staff, uni students are building their confidence and knowledge learning, how to properly register voters, organizing daily outreach tables, making presentations in classrooms to reach students across across any major or steady area, making announcements to student government associations and sharing voting rights, fact sheets, and voter guides.
0:15:14
When we get closer to the election, we'll be organizing phone banks and text reminders, to when polls are open and to look for their poll site organizing, get out the vote tables for students to look up their poll site, and coordinating social media campaigns to reach their peers by sharing why voter voting matters to them this year.
0:15:34
Students with NIPEG are bringing to life what research has shown about voter engagement that by far the most effective and meaningful technique studied has been to use peer to peer contact.
0:15:45
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.