By Christina Smith
Students for a Greener Hofstra try to register voters who will “vote green.”
Students for a Greener Hofstra and the Power Vote organization brought 30 windmills to campus Wednesday to symbolize their efforts to get 4,000 of the University’s students to pledge to vote with “clean energy as their priority,” according to Laura Comer, a junior who is president of Students for a Greener Hofstra.
The windmills represent the Power Vote ideal of clean form of energy and alternative energy sources that are available in America. They have traveled to each college campus that has hosted a presidential debate this year, and, as they moved across the country, each windmill was adorned with signs and messages from the Power Vote organizations at these campuses.
Power Vote is a national campaign whose goal is to ultimately receive pledges from one million young people who will choose a candidate based on his clean energy policies. Comer was approached about the idea of Power Vote last year.
“I brought the idea back to Hofstra,” she said, “and everyone [I spoke with] loved the idea.”
According to Comer, about 80 volunteers turned out to represent Power Vote on Wednesday, which is triple the amount of volunteers who showed up the days before. Comer associates this growth with the happy-go-lucky attitude of the volunteers. In fact, Comer asserted that many of her volunteers had such a positive attitude, that they brought in an equally positive crowd.
“I wanted to get people excited about environmental sustainability,” said junior volunteer Kasie Boehn.
The student-volunteers who represent Power Vote on campus set a goal to have 4,000 pledges signed by the election. On Wednesday alone, Comer recorded 1,200 pledges, and an additional 1,000 from the days before. Volunteers will continue to collect pledges on campus after the debate, and Comer is optimistic that the group will reach the 4,000 mark.
The Power Vote organization will use the pledges to push the elected candidate to stick to the policies implemented in their campaigns.
“The pledges will be like saying [to the president], ‘You were elected, and this is what one million people have to say,'” Comer said. “One million people is 25 percent of the electorate. We should be heard.”
The 30 windmills brought to campus by the Power Vote team were on display all day Wednesday in the quad behind the student center greenhouse. (Lisa DiCarlucci)