Elect Her: Campus Women Win, a program that trains college women to run for student government and future office, is coming to The University of Alabama Feb. 1.
Sydney Page, senior and student coordinator for Elect Her UA, works with the Women’s Resource Center to bring Elect Her to the University during election season to help women run for Student Government Association positions.
“We need to get more women in leadership roles throughout the state of Alabama,” Page said. “Women need to be an active part of the decisions that affect their lives and communities. What better way to begin this process of giving back than to get elected and serve in leadership roles than during your college tenure?”
Page said The University of Alabama is one of the first institutions to have the program run by the American Association of University Women. AAUW empowers women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and research. Their nonprofit organization has more than 170,000 members and supporters across the United States.
Kate Farrar, director of AAUW Campus Leadership Programs, said the nation needs women leaders because they help change the conversation.
“We want women to see themselves as political leaders on campus, because that makes them more likely to continue on in public office after college,” Farrar said. “The problems facing the country are tremendous, and we can’t just be satisfied with the status quo. Having a diversity of perspectives is crucial to addressing our biggest challenges.”
A one-day workshop is set up for women who are interested in running. Page said Elect Her details female involvement in politics from a national, state and campus perspective. From there, they explain why women should run for office from a local to a national level.
“We explain the process to what it takes to start a campaign,” Page said. “What is your platform message? How do you raise money? How do you network and things like that?”
Page said they bring in a representative from SGA to talk about SGA elections. She said a lot of students don’t know about the paperwork SGA requires, when it is due or how to raise money. The workshop lasts all day and can be a networking opportunity for the participants as well as the speakers.
“We encourage the participants to reach out to the speakers,” Page said. “We have an email group for all the participants, so when they decide to run, they can send out an email to past speakers and participants to ask them to consider voting for them.”
Elect Her is working with both the Women’s Resource Center and Running Start, a national organization meant to introduce young women to politics, to help women get into office at the University.
“We are thrilled to launch the fourth year of Elect Her trainings. Each year I’m consistently impressed by the college women leaders we meet,” Running Start Executive Director Jessica Grounds said. “Running Start and AAUW are committed not only to equipping college women to lead on their campuses, but also to imparting the message that we need them to consider leading in politics after college. We are addressing the lack of women political leaders head on by telling college women that their country needs their leadership.”
The deadline to register for the workshop is Jan. 24. To find out more about the Women’s Resource Center, visit wrc.ua.edu. To register for Elect Her, visit wrc.ua.edu/ehForm.cfm.
