UT Martin Democrats

Via the UTM.edu homepage:

Building on the historic young voter turnout in the 2004 elections, the University of Tennessee at Martin has announced a non-partisan project to register young voters in the 2006 election cycle, part of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ (AASCU) 30-state project to register 40,000 students to vote nationwide. School administrators and students at 80 colleges and universities will register young voters using a mix of peer-to-peer outreach, encouragement from professors, email and direct mail. The AASCU and UT Martin projects are part of a nationwide, non-partisan effort to register 350,000 voters in 2006, coordinated by Young Voter Strategies and funded by a $3 million grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts.

“2004 proved that if you ask them, they will vote,” said Dr. Mike McCullough, UT Martin American Democracy Project (ADP) chairman. “Massive outreach efforts in 2004 resulted in young voter turnout increasing 11 percentage points over 2000 levels — more than four million more young voters in 2004. In 2006, we’ll register students here in Tennessee and continue the momentum of increasing young voter turnout.”

AASCU, which represents 430 state colleges and universities that enroll more than 3.7 million students, will register young voters at 80 colleges and universities through its American Democracy Project. At UT Martin, administrators, the Student Government Association and student coordinators will team up to register young voters at home, in class, in dorms and on campus. UT Martin’s efforts also will be part of a research project pertaining to voter registration on campuses across the U.S.

Two of the country’s leading voter mobilization researchers will work with AASCU to track and evaluate which of these techniques register the most state college students and find out which of them is most likely to result in a vote cast on Election Day. The results can be applied in future voter registration projects at all public colleges, which enroll more than six million students and growing.

In 2004, turnout among 18 to 24 year olds jumped 11 percentage points, nearly three times the overall electorate’s turnout increase, and more than 20 million 18 to 29 year olds voted. Experts contend that the unprecedented amount of youth-oriented outreach in 2004 is the most significant reason for this jump.

“State colleges and universities could be goldmines for nonprofits and political campaigns reaching out to register young voters. More than six million students attend state schools in the U.S., many on campuses with tens of thousands enrolled,” said Heather Smith, director of Young Voter Strategies. “Coming out of this project, we’ll have data to help create a comprehensive toolkit for future state college registration projects.”

To build on 2004, the Young Voter Strategies project will register 18-29 year olds nationwide through Internet, email and mobile phone strategies, streamlined peer-to-peer outreach, presentations by high school teachers and college professors and creative outreach by musicians. Each group will focus on a specific subset of 18-29 year olds, such as single women, community college students, African Americans, evangelical youth and high school seniors.

The primary purpose of the University of Tennessee at Martin is to provide a quality undergraduate education in a traditional collegiate atmosphere characterized at all levels by close relationships among students and faculty. In addition, the graduate and distributed learning programs meet life-long educational needs for all seeking knowledge. Appropriate technologies support research, scholarship, and creative endeavors which enhance teaching and expand knowledge. The university is committed to public service and applied research efforts to enhance the economic, educational, aesthetic and cultural life of the region. For more information, visit www.utm.edu.

AASCU members work to extend higher education to all citizens. AASCU represents more than 400 public colleges and universities in the U.S., which enroll more than three million students or 55 percent of the enrollment at all public four-year institutions. AASCU’s American Democracy Project is a multi-campus initiative that seeks to create an intellectual and experiential understanding of civic engagement for undergraduates enrolled at AASCU’s member institutions. The goal of the project is to produce graduates who understand and are committed to engaging in meaningful actions as citizens in a democracy. For more information on the AASCU, visit www.aascu.org.

Young Voter Strategies, a project of the Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University, with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts, provides the public, parties, candidates, consultants and non-profits with data on the youth vote and tools to effectively mobilize this electorate for upcoming elections. For more information, visit www.youngvoterstrategies.org.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen will be speaking at the May 13 commencement. Seating is limited in the arena to six guests of graduates. However, the university is simulcasting the address to the fieldhouse, where seating will be open to the general public.

Here is a full biography from his 2006 campaign Web site:

Phil Bredesen, the 48th governor of Tennessee, took office January 18, 2003, with a promise to “focus energy on real results by leaving behind predictable and stale political debates.”

During his first year in office, Bredesen brought a new level of candor, openness and accountability to state government. In one of his first acts as Governor, he opened the door to administrative budget hearings, allowing taxpayers to see for the first time the decisions that are made on how their money is spent. His first three executive orders established the toughest ethics rules in the history of Tennessee’s executive branch. He managed the State through a fiscal crisis without raising taxes or cutting funding for education. Most of all, he instilled a renewed confidence that government can work on behalf of its citizens for the betterment of the entire state.

Years Two and Three brought more progress. Bredesen pushed measures to improve education, including raising teacher pay above the Southeastern average and expanding Tennessee’s pre-kindergarten program as part of a statewide initiative. To recruit new industry and jobs, he worked with the General Assembly to reform Tennessee’s workers’ compensation system and invest in retraining programs to help laid-off employees develop new skills in the rapidly changing economy. He launched Tennessee’s war on methamphetamine abuse by focusing on treatment, prevention and public awareness as well as enhanced criminal penalties and resources for law enforcement.

Most importantly, Bredesen took control of TennCare – the state’s financially troubled Medicaid-expansion program – by preserving full enrollment for children and pursuing innovating care and disease-management initiatives. Even after necessary reductions in adult enrollment to maintain TennCare’s fiscal balance, the program remains one of the most generous and comprehensive state healthcare plans in the nation.

Before serving as Tennessee’s governor, Bredesen built a reputation for effective leadership as the mayor of Nashville from 1991 to 1999, charting a course that made Music City U.S.A. one of the best places in America to live, work and raise a family. Among other accomplishments, he invested nearly $500 million to build new schools and hire new teachers. He developed a state-of-the-art library system, oversaw downtown redevelopment, expanded the city’s park system and drove down the crime rate. Under his leadership, Nashville saw record economic growth by recruiting high-quality jobs and companies such as Dell Computer Corp. and HCA Inc. Bredesen also brought two professional sports teams to Nashville: the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and the NHL’s Nashville Predators.

Before entering public service, Bredesen was a successful healthcare entrepreneur. Between research trips to the public library, he drafted a business plan at the kitchen table that led to the creation in 1980 of HealthAmerica Corp., a Nashville-based healthcare management company that eventually grew to more than 6,000 employees and traded on the New York Stock Exchange. He sold the company in 1986.

Bredesen and his wife, First Lady Andrea Conte, are active members of the community, locally and statewide. He is a founding member of Nashville’s Table, a nonprofit group that collects discarded food from local restaurants and distributes it to the city’s homeless population. He also founded the Land Trust for Tennessee, a nonprofit organization that works statewide to preserve open space and traditional family farms. Conte is founder and president of You Have the Power … Know How to Use It, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about crime and justice issues.

Bredesen was born on November 21, 1943. He grew up in rural Shortsville, N.Y., and moved to Nashville in 1975. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University. He is an avid hunter and outdoorsman, a licensed pilot and enjoys painting as a hobby. He and Conte have one son, Ben.

U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. made UTM a stop along his campaign trail on Oct. 13. Ford spoke students and faculty during a small lunch-time reception and later returned to UTM as a guest speaker during the Weakley County Democratic meeting that was hosted in the UC ballroom. Ford is one of six people who are running for the U.S. Senate election in 2006.

Here are a few photos from the event.

More can be found on Ford’s Web site.

First off, congratulations to our recent graduates. We hope for the best in your future, and that you can overcome this simply dismall job market for college graduates. Unfortunately, that’s not the only thing the Class of 2005 faces as they leave UT Martin. Even for the rest of us, things could be so much better in our great nation.

Here are the top ten reasons America is feeling the “Summer Time Blues,” performed not by singer/songwriter Alan Jackson, but by George W. Bush and Co.

10. Opposes increasing the minimum wage, even though more and more Americans have to work two jobs to stay above the poverty line and young people are struggling to keep up with rising health care and education costs. Keep this in mind as you try to make ends meet with your summer job.

9. Failed to provide a real energy plan, because the Bush energy policy is crafted by the energy industry, for the energy industry. By continuing to rely on fossil fuel and foreign oil — and only paying lip service to renewable energy and conservation — the Bush administration has failed to address the real problems. Remember this everytime you fill-up this summer.

8. Rolled back environmental regulations that protect clean air and water, endangering our health; and slowed down the clean up of toxic waste sites while insisting that taxpayers pay the burden! Remember that “Clean Air Act” sham job they pulled in his first term?

7. Rolled back years of Civil Rights advances by opposing affirmative action and appointing judges who defend cross-burners and oppose voters’ rights. Rather than working to unite Americans as he promised in 2000, President Bush has sought a constitutional amendment opposing gay marriage to divide Americans. History will not be kind to this president.

6. Undermined women’s right to choose — selecting vehemently anti-choice judicial nominees; trying to cut funding for family planning; even overruling the government’s own scientific panels to refuse over the counter sale of emergency contraception! They also refuse to fund sex education courses in high schools, or free contraceptives.

5. Offered huge tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans while students and middle-class families are losing access to health insurance and health care costs continue to escalate. Keep this in mind as your graduation date nears.

4. Failed to adequately protect our homeland security by under-funding state and local security efforts, including police, fire and health first-responders, and failing to adequately secure chemical plants, airports, airlines, ports, borders and other terror-sensitive points. Lot’s of talk, no action.

3. Misled the American people to sell the War in Iraq; irresponsibly sent young people overseas to fight for their country without a plan for winning the peace; and has gotten us stuck in a quagmire in Iraq and squandered the good will of our allies. How many more men and women are going to die needlessly, Mr. President?

2. Inherited record surpluses, a balanced budget, and steady job growth and blew it. The budget deficit is ballooning, Bush has lost more jobs than any President since the Great Depression, and now even well-paying, highly skilled jobs are being shipped overseas. Are you better off than you were four years ago?

1. Has stood by as college tuition has soared 35 percent — Bush broke his campaign promise to increase the size of Pell Grant awards, has cut other financial-aid programs, and has time and again chosen to reward his wealthy friends over increasing the accessibility and affordability of higher education.

The University of Tennessee at Martin College Democrats extends our sincerest condolences and heartfelt sympathy to the families affected by the tragic events of this past weekend in the Asian peninsula. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.

We encourage anyone who can to donate to the American Red Cross or other relief organizations to help those in their time of need. We also encourage you to tell our leaders in Congress and the President to waste no time in showing the true mercy of America in this time of great need.

- UT Martin College Democrats