Students from eight southern California
universities built a life-size plywood truck and tailgated the presidential
candidate debates outside Hollywood’s
Kodak Theatre last week to bring attention to issues important to young voters.

UCSD students who joined the effort are volunteers with the
California Student Public Interest Research Group’s New Voters Project, which
has registered thousands of young voters this primary season and is now running
“get out the vote” drives on college campuses statewide. UCSD’s CALPIRG members
have registered nearly 500 voters.

Since April, more than 400 student volunteers with the
project have appeared at fundraisers, photo-ops and town hall meetings to urge
presidential candidates to speak directly to young people about issues relevant
to them. The eight universities who aided the project include UCLA, USC, L.A.
City College,
L.A. Valley
College, UC Santa Barbara, UCSD, UC
Riverside and UC Irvine.

CALPIRG is a statewide student organization that works to
solve public interest problems related to the environment, consumer protection
and government reform.