UCOL students urged to vote

UCOL is leading the way in a campaign to encourage more young people to vote in this year’s General Elections.

UCOL is supporting a campaign on all three of its campuses this month, to encourage students to vote. The campaign is being run by the Association of Students at UCOL (AS@U) as part of a wider national campaign run by the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA).

Jo Hymers, President of AS@U, says the NZUSA campaign is backed by Young Labour, Young Nationals, Young Greens, Young Progressive and Young United Future. It is also supported by the Electoral Commission which is targeting youth with their ‘Let’s Get Loud’ enrolment campaign during the month of August

“UCOL is the first tertiary institution to agree to facilitate the campaign, by allowing us to go into each class to talk to students and by ensuring that teaching staff are aware that AS@U and an Electoral Commission representative will be interrupting each class for 5 minutes, at UCOL’s Palmerston North, Whanganui and Wairarapa campuses.

“We are very grateful to have this great working relationship with our institute” says Jo. “UCOL management agree with us that it’s important for students to take part in the important process of a General Election.”

In her tour of UCOL campuses, Jo will be joined by representatives from the Electoral Commission.

Deputy Chief Executive Academic, Bonnie Dewart, says it is good to see AS@U taking the initiative on encouraging young people to vote. “We approve of UCOL students getting a reminder about the election and the importance of enrolling and voting.”

Jo Hymers says the single largest block of eligible voters who are not enrolled to vote are aged between 18 and 25. “This age group encompasses a large number of students which is why NZUSA is getting behind the electoral commission’s campaign. Youth need to understand that it is their right to have a say in who governs our country, and we should all take it very seriously,” she says.

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