November 27, 2024 Beyond Voting: How UCLA Student Affairs Champions Civic Engagement
On the evening of November 5, 2024, UCLA students packed Pauley Pavilion for hours, waiting to hear the results of an important contest. This time, they weren't there for yet another Bruins basketball game. Instead, the students were abuzz watching news coverage of the 2024 general election.
Hundreds of students participated in this year’s Election Night Watch Party hosted by Campus Life and BruinsVote, which served as one of UCLA’s hallmark events for the 2024 election. Event organizers even ran out of food on three separate occasions throughout the night, a surefire metric for collegiate event success. The Election Night Watch Party was just one of the many well-attended civic engagement programs spearheaded by Student Affairs and its partners this election season.
Philip Goodrich, Manager of Campus Life Initiatives for UCLA Student Affairs, said that the planning for the 2024 election actually began as early as last year, with the launch of the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement network and Democracy Workshops in fall 2023. These initiatives explored topics such as media literacy and talking across difference in a polarized environment, hoping to encourage students to become more informed and engaged citizens. Goodrich also highlighted the work done around the March primary elections earlier this year as part of the 2024 general election preparation, using their resources to support more civic engagement and communication efforts for a lesser-known election.
Through these programs, UCLA Student Affairs ensures that civic engagement is at the center of its mission to empower students to use their voice and transform society. While Student Affairs staff plays a key role in these efforts on campus, UCLA students are often the ones driving this initiative.
Two students, Chloe Garton and Kiley Larkin, are the co-directors of BruinsVote, UCLA’s official nonpartisan student voting and civic engagement coalition. Garton, a third-year English major, and Larkin, a fourth-year public affairs major, lead the organization comprised of more than 50 student volunteers from majors across campus, who help them staff events, create content, and lead voter education and “get out the vote” initiatives.
In October, BruinsVote planned an event called Boos and Ballots which brought students together with different community partners such as the League of Women Voters, LAist, and the Los Angeles City Clerk’s Office to celebrate Vote Early Day. BruinsVote also hosted another event on election day, Party to the Polls, which motivated students to join the already-long voting lines and make their voices heard. Garton and Larkin said that they capitalized on UCLA’s extensive network of student organizations by inviting different clubs, from pre-med to political, to table at their event. They also invited student performers to draw a larger crowd. Ultimately, BruinsVote mobilized more than 600 students to vote at one of UCLA’s three on-campus vote centers on election day.
The partnerships didn’t stop there. BruinsVote also created a training program for different student organizations to help them register new voters, allowing even more students to join the effort to increase voter turnout. They also tabled on multiple occasions at different location throughout campus, including at New Student Orientation and on the Hill, where Garton says she saw a meaningful impact. By talking to younger students, many of whom are newly or soon-to-be 18 years old, BruinsVote hopes to solidify the tradition of voting by sparking the habit in college.
“It’s never going to be easier to vote than it is here. Instilling that sentiment early has such a meaningful impact on our country and society over time,” says Garton.
While voting is important, BruinsVote is also active in areas of civic engagement that allow all students, not just those eligible to vote, to participate in our democracy.
Larkin says that “some people feel very disconnected from government and how things run. Voting is a great way to feel connected, but it’s not the only way. There are so many ways to be civically engaged. It is difficult and daunting, so we are here to make it more accessible for everyone.”
Goodrich also believes that this type of civic engagement work is important for college campuses to promote, and while voting is critical, civic engagement must go beyond “get out the vote” efforts to be successful.
“Education and democracy go hand in hand. How are you engaging with your community? How are you sharing your perspective? How are you learning to have disagreements with others in your community about what's good for society and how do you compromise?” says Goodrich.
As UCLA navigates the aftermath of the 2024 election, Garton, Goodrich, and Larkin all agree that there is much more to do. From providing different spaces to help students process the election results to promoting dialogue across difference, Student Affairs, its partners, and UCLA students are already tackling post-election challenges head-on. The future is uncertain, but one thing is for sure: November 5 was not the end of civic engagement efforts at UCLA. In fact, it may just be the beginning.