University wins award for campus event

Jenny Di, director of the Political Student Assembly, accepted an award on behalf of USC for the school’s participation in National Voter Registration Day Tuesday morning at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting.

“The L.A. County Board of Supervisors wanted to recognize USC because it’s an undergraduate university where the young people are a demographic which we target when it comes to elections either on a local or national level,” Di said. “This award will show that we are making great strides to engaging our whole campus in politics.”

The Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, along with other student political groups, all contributed to USC receiving the award.

“They were leading the effort in voter registration and PSA along with the Black Student Assembly, the Undergraduate Student Government and a lot of different groups on campus sponsoring and co-hosting the registration event,” Di said.

USC received this award for its continued political involvement, especially in regard to its emphasis on voter registration. Today, an event was held on campus in front of Tommy Trojan.

“We know that there is a level of civic engagement on campus, and we wanted to tie that in to national voter registration and mobilization day,” said Mark Ridley-Thomas, supervisor of the second district in Los Angeles County. “We want to acknowledge those entities that can and should be involved in the life of our communities.”

The presentation of the award took place at 9:30 a.m. as part of the meeting. Dean Logan, the  registrar-recorder and county clerk who organized the event, was responsible for giving the ceremonial scroll to USC through Di.

“In the act of being registered voters, we all have the opportunity to influence and participate in our elections process,” Logan said.

Unruh Institute Director Dan Schnur also presented the award to USG President Rini Sampath at the National Voter Registration Day event at Tommy Trojan several hours later, allowing students to see the prestigious recognition.

Ridley-Thomas, who is also a USC alumnus, hopes that honoring the University will help reverse the trend of decreasing voter turnout.

“[Recognizing USC] essentially puts a fine point on the fact that voter registration and voter turnout is down and acknowledging those entities that can and should be involved in the civic life of our communities,” Ridley-Thomas said. “We put a spotlight on motivated students, faculty, administration who want to say that Los Angeles has the highest concentration of voters in the entire state and can lead the nation. And what better way to do that than to acknowledge one of the premier institutions in our region to accomplish that.”