When Colleen Kaul stepped into the Great Hall to attend a workshop on the Iowa caucuses, she had some idea of what a caucus was, but wasn’t totally clear on the process.

“I had some ideas about how a caucus works, but didn’t understand the mechanics,” she said.

Kaul, sophomore in aerospace engineering, wasn’t alone in her fuzzy understanding of the Iowa caucuses. Nearly 300 participants attended the workshop, which was designed to increase caucus-turnout among young voters.

Seven of the nine Democratic presidential candidates were represented at the workshop by staffers and student volunteers who enthusiastically passed out T-shirts, buttons and bottle openers. The College Republicans showed their support of President Bush.

Candidates not represented were Rev. Al Sharpton and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.

The workshop was comprised of two types of people: those who came to support a candidate and those who wanted to know how it worked.

Attendees learned the difference between a caucus and a primary — in which a voter simply casts a ballot.

In a caucus, the process is more involved. A voter will drive to a neighbor’s house in their precinct, meet with other caucus-goers and stand up to publicly declare their support for a candidate. The caucus-goers then discuss issues, or planks, of a candidate that compose their platform.

A “mock caucus” was held after the explanation, with each of the Democratic student representatives giving three-minute speeches proving why their candidate deserved the White House.

The College Republicans’ caucus discussion had a different format than the Democrats’, since Bush is running unopposed. They discussed the planks of Bush’s platform, which is very important because the delegates decide what goes on that platform, said Josh Reicks, president of the College Republicans.

“Bush will stand behind every issue on his platform,” he said. “If enough Republicans went to the caucus and put pro-choice on Bush’s platform, he would support it at the Republican National Convention.”

With its first-in-the-nation status, most of the national media descends on Iowa during the caucuses. C-SPAN taped the first half of the workshop for broadcast at a later date.

Although the process is more difficult than a primary, Iowa is lucky to have the honor of being the first leg of the presidential race, said Gordon Fischer, Iowa Democratic Party chairman.

“Other states are jealous of the opportunity we have,” Fischer said.

“Any one of you could meet all nine of the [Democratic] presidential candidates without much effort.”

The speakers pleaded with students to become involved in the caucuses, which typically suffer from low student-voter turnout. Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver said students had the most to gain or lose in the Iowa Caucuses because policies enacted today would affect young voters for their entire lives.

“Involvement in the caucuses will teach you how to shape public policy,” Culver said.

“If you do get involved, concerning politics, you will learn as much outside a class as you do inside.”