With the 2008 presidential election quickly approaching, students may be wondering how to register to vote or even how to get involved with a presidential campaign. On August 19, representatives from the Barack Obama Campaign held an informational meeting on the second floor of Founders Hall, during which they invited Guilford students to start an on-campus “change crew.”The change crew would consist of students interested in supporting Obama by helping to get people registered to vote and excited about the election. A main goal of the change crew is to register every student on campus.

“I like to pose the challenge of having every student on campus registered and I am going to do whatever it takes to try and meet that goal,” said sophomore volunteer Jordan Auleb.

The on-campus change crew will be working with the same issues as volunteers throughout Greensboro, but their work will be Guilford-specific. Students will learn how to canvass the campus, and be trained in registering voters. Some volunteers will also be trained to conduct phone banking.

Students may remember registration efforts on campus during the primary elections last spring. The change crew hopes to make their registration efforts more visible. They plan to work in conjunction with the College Democrats club to do so.

In addition to the training, efforts are being put forth to plan events. The first event, a watch party of Barack Obama’s speech of acceptance for the democratic nomination, was planned in light of the Democratic convention by the College Democrats club.

Students are not the only people on campus concerned about getting the community interested in the election. The political science department on campus introduced a new course this semester titled “Ideas, Campaigns, and Elections.” One of two teachers of the course, Maria Rosales, explained that students are asked to “intern with a campaign, so the course involves experiential learning as well as political theory and American politics.”

Since this meeting, the change crew has quickly picked up momentum on campus. They were present at Wednesday’s club fair and canvassed the campus in what they called a “dorm storm.”

The group of student volunteers hopes that their efforts on campus inspire other students to contact the Obama campaign office downtown on Greene Street, or talk to members of the College Democrats club on campus for more information on how to get involved.