Dear Colleagues,
It’s Time to Rock the Vote!
Welcome to a new academic year! This will be a very eventful semester with the most high-stakes elections in the history of the United States. It is not an exaggeration to say the country’s future as a democracy is on the line, as well as women’s reproductive rights, the safety and lives of immigrants and any chance to pursue equity in any sphere of society. And, this is also such a historic moment with the first woman AND woman of color on the ballot! I am personally so excited at the possibility of a Kamala Harris presidency and am supporting her campaign in any way I can. I know many of you on campus are doing this as well.
While campuses cannot overtly or explicitly advocate a specific way to vote, they can help support voting. Every vote will make a difference. It is incumbent on campus administrators, faculty and staff to model voting behavior as well as to encourage voting among students. There are many efforts and resources to assist you on campus, and all are non-partisan.
For a helpful overview of resources around voting/support for democracy the American Association of Colleges and Universities offers a comprehensive overview of resources, including this helpful article to help mobilize your campus efforts.
Then, there are many groups your campus can join and that have free resources you can adopt without membership:
All in – Campus Democracy Challenge began in 2012 and has developed a proven approach to help get more students out to vote. Several groups created the project including the American Democracy Project, The Democracy Commitment and NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. Over 1000 colleges currently participate in the effort.
Campus Vote Project works with close to 300 campuses also aimed at enhancing voting through offering resources and coaching.
Students Learn, Students Vote is a student inspired organization that works to support voting on campus with a growing presence in recent years.
And, in between elections and going forward, we need more work to instill democratic values and work into college students. These two projects can help you to envision this work:
More Perfect offers various tools for bringing college students into efforts that support democratic engagement. While voting is a key element, this project expands to work on key projects that support the health of democracy everyday.
College Civic Learning is an alliance of organizations that has developed curriculum and learning activities for colleges to integrate to support civic education within college, making it required rather than optional. 100s of campuses are now involved in various coalitions implementing civic learning into their curriculum.
Even with these resources available, it will be incumbent on campus staff, faculty and leaders to build relationships and trust with students because so many feel disenfranchised and as if their vote does not count. Others feel apathetic toward the candidates. It is the relationships we have with our students that we can help them to acknowledge and push past these feelings. Empowerment happens because of feeling inspired. Tell your stories of making a difference through your civic participation. Every story — no matter how small in scope — can plant the seed that changes are possible, amongst students who just do not trust in the government.
There is no more important work for all of us to commit to this Fall. Help rock the vote!
Professor, USC Rossier School of Education
