Student social workers "Do it in the streets"
Mobilize The Vote! registers 8,700 New Yorkers in one day
(November/December 1996)
On October 10, 1996, Mobilize the Vote!, a citywide group of graduate social work students, reportedly broke existing records for registering New Yorkers on a weekday by signing up 8,700 new voters in a single day. Mobilize the Vote! was initiated by NASW's NYC-PACE (Political Action for Candidate Election) and worked in collaboration with Human SERVE and the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG).
Two hundred MSW students from the NYC graduate schools-Columbia, Fordham, Hunter, NYU and Yeshiva-staffed 40 streetcorner tables from 6 AM (through a morning rainfall) to late evening at locations throughout the five boroughs. Wearing T-shirts that identified them as social workers affiliated with NASW and their five schools, and with the slogan "Do It In The Streets" imprinted on the front, the students were a prominent sight at thoroughfares such as 125th St. in Manhattan, where Columbia University's National Association of Black Social Workers registered more than 600 New Yorkers.
Focusing on under-represented neighborhoods, Fordham students registered 428 people in the Bronx at Fordham Avenue and Grand Concourse; in Brooklyn, at Flatbush and Nostrand, Yeshiva students signed up 294 new voters; Hunter students at Parsons Boulevard and Archer in Queens got 571 people on the voter rolls; and NYU students reached 500 new voters at St. Marks Place and Third Avenue in Manhattan. The largest single total was Columbia's registration of 1,700 people at Times Square. New voters were asked for their phone numbers and called before November 5th, to get out the vote.
In May 1996, NYC-PACE voted to allocate $2,500 to promote a voter registration campaign in each of the five schools of social work. Through the support provided by the deans of each school, student representatives were contacted and established a planning group which met weekly throughout the summer. The core group was made up of Jill Becker from Yeshiva, Emily Blank and Tom Hill from Hunter, Satya Rao from Fordham, Theresa Thanjan from Columbia and Donna Rosenstiel from NYU. Jim Conley represented Human SERVE. Harriet Putterman, Social Policy Associate from NASW, served as the project consultant.
The students' mobilization strategy included interactive presentations about voter registration at each school's orientation for new students and hanging Mobilize the Vote! banners prominently in each school.
In addition to the October 10th registration, students registered peers in school and registered clients in agencies, giving their campaign a grand total of about 11,000 registered and, counting. The full legacy of the students' work will be measured by client registration that continues to be accomplished at social service agencies throughout the city.