USD Magazine Fall 2016

TORERO  NEWS

Political Science professor Casey Dominguez is involved with the USD Votes Campaign, which aims to register every USD student and urge them to turn out to vote.

Campaign to increase number of registered student voters [ c i v i c d u t y ] LET’S GET OUT THE VOTE

of USD students will be voting for the first time this year.” Increasing voter turnout is important; that’s why Domin- guez is one of the faculty members behind the USD Votes Campaign, an on-cam- pus initiative comprised of student leaders, staff, faculty and the Changemaker Hub, who are focused on providing support and coordination efforts aimed to encourage community members to become registered voters. “Voting can be especially complicated and confusing for college students, who are going through the process for the first time,” she says. “Research shows that informational campaigns that walk new voters through the voter registration and the voting process can significantly increase turnout.” For Dominguez, encouraging voting habits comes with her chosen field. “The whole reason we teach political science is be- cause we care about educating the next generation of citizens. The focus is natural for us,” she says. While the campaign’s goal of registering every USD stu- dent is ambitious, she believes that even slight changes in vot- ing behavior will make a soci- etal difference. “Voting is a practice and a habit. The only way to establish a pattern of voting across your lifetime is to get started doing

NICK ABADILLA

by Allyson Meyer ‘16 mmigration, health care and student debt. These are just some of the hot topics on the presidential campaign trail. With the November elections quickly approaching, the news is becoming ever more saturated with political coverage, detailing changes in policy positions, cabinet choices and new public poll results. Although many of the issues resonate with college- age individuals, voter turnout I

among University of San Diego students has been lower than the national average in past elections. Associate Professor of Political Science Casey Domin- guez aims to remedy this. As an undergraduate student, Dominguez interned at the White House and the California State Assembly. Having earned her BA, MA and PhD in political science from the University of

California, Berkeley, Dominguez is now focused on educating the newest voting demographic on the importance of fulfilling one’s civic duty by actively participating as members of American society. “In 2014, voter turnout among USD students was 16 percent,” said Dominguez. “That was slightly lower than the national average of college campuses. That means that a lot

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