Stephanie King:
I think that was a great rendition of helping students understand that they have a choice, just like snowbirds have a choice depending upon where they have that dual residency, but also thinking about the values alignment. So sometimes it can be influenced by family members say like we’ve always voted here, this is where you vote, this is what you do. But as people start to figure out who they are, which is part of the college experience, they might say I have more of a community within Michigan as compared to my home state and Pennsylvania. And so that’s where I want to vote based on that value alignment as compared to the this is the way it’s always been.

Heather Shea
Hello and welcome to Student Affairs NOW the online learning community for Student Affairs educators. I’m your host Heather Shea. Today’s episode is all about promoting voting and democracy on college and university campuses. Many states have recently held primaries, including my home state of Michigan, and that sparked the idea of digging a bit deeper into this topic on an episode. I am so grateful to be joined by four folks with various vantage points both inside higher ed institutions and adjacent to engage in a discussion about increasing democratic engagement among college students on campus. Before I introduce my guest, today, I’m going to share a bit more about our podcast and today’s sponsors. Student Affairs NOW is the premier podcast and learning community for 1000s of us who work in alongside or adjacent to the field of higher education and student affairs. We hope you’ll find these conversations make a contribution to the field and our restorative to the profession. We release new episodes every week on Wednesdays, find us at studentaffairsnow.com on YouTube, or anywhere you listen to podcast. Today’s episode is sponsored by LeaderShape. Go to leadershape.org to learn how they can work with you to create a just caring and thriving world. This episode is also sponsored by Vector Solutions formerly ever fi the trusted partner for 2000 plus colleges and universities. Vector solutions is the standard of care for student safety, wellbeing and inclusion. Stay tuned for the end of this podcast for more information about each of these sponsors.

Heather Shea
As I mentioned, I’m your host, Heather Shea, my pronouns are she, her and hers and I am broadcasting from the ancestral traditional and contemporary Land of the National Day three fires confederacy of Ojibwe, Ottawa and Potawatomi peoples, also home to the campus of Michigan State University, which resides on land, seated in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw where I work, so excited to have the four of you today on the podcast. Thank you so much for joining me. As you introduce yourself, tell the audience a little bit more about you. What’s your name, roll institution, all of the things that you are engaged with on your campuses or in your organizations. And I think we’re gonna start with our two folks out like adjacent to higher ed and Adam, we’ll kick it off with you.

Adam Gismondi
Thanks for having us today, Heather. My name is Adam Gismondi. I’m coming for coming to you. From just off of Tufts University’s campus, which sits on the colonized homelands of the Massachusetts tribal people. We are just north of Boston. My work at the Institute for Democracy and higher education at Tisch College of civic life is director of impact. And I kind of oversee lots of different areas of our office, including our communications, some areas of our qualitative research. And our office focuses on that very broad intersection of democracy and higher education. And I should note, I’m a former student affairs administrator, as well.

Heather Shea
Thank you so much for being here. Adam. Stephanie, welcome.

Stephanie King
Thanks, Heather. I’m excited to be with you all today and to join my colleagues for the conversation. My name is Stephanie King and I used to she her pronouns series, I’m the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives with a program called the All In Campus Democracy Challenge, which is an initiative of the 501 C3 civic nation. Our work in general entails working with a network of about 950 campuses across the nation, acknowledging all tribal lands in the history of where we are, and the fact that we help campuses to institutionalize nonpartisan democratic engagement being civic learning, political participation, and student voter engagement efforts. We also strive to close the voting gaps based on age and race, with a particular focus on increasing support and outreach for minority serving institutions and community colleges. Like Adam, while we’re higher education adjacent, I used to work in the senior affairs profession, at small liberal arts institutions on the East Coast and have formerly held the title of director of civic learning and democratic engagement and knowledge community initiatives with the association NASPA. So excited to be back in this space with my student affairs colleagues.

Heather Shea
So excited, you’re here, I love it. And just given the intro, I could tell that Sue and Renee know you well, and Su & Renee are also my colleagues at Michigan State. So tell us a little bit about you.

Suchitra Webster
Great, thank you. I’m really happy to be here talking with all of you and Heather, thank you for the invitation. My name is Suchitra or I go by Su also Webster, I use the she her series of pronouns. And I am the Director of Student and Community Relations at Michigan State University, Premier land grant institution in the United States. And my work takes place through our Division of Student Life and engagement. And also through the office here of Government Relations. So touches on a lot of different areas where the university intersects with the surrounding community. I also serve on the board of the International town gown Association, and have been at MSU for quite some time. So really happy to be one of the co chairs of MSU vote, which is campus and community coalition, really designed to ensure that students are registered to vote that they’re educated about the issues and about candidates and that they are actually making a plan and voting during election time. So I will turn things over to you, Renee.

Renee C. Brown
Thank you so so it does feel like we’re in really good company and among friends because we do get to work together quite a bit. So I’m happy about that. My name is Renee Brown, I use this she her pronouns. And I am the director of the Center for Community engaged learning at Michigan State University, which is a unit that actually reports both in academic affairs and in student life and engagement. And we really have the opportunity to work with students in all aspects of their experience here as at MSU at Michigan State University. So as Su mentioned, we co chair the MSU vote to campus and community coalition, and that allows us to work with partners, both internal and external to our institution. And we’re really focused on the education of students registration and participation and democratic process. And we’re just really excited to be here with you all today.

Heather Shea
Thank you, thank you all is this is going to be a fabulous conversation. As I said in the intro, it’s very timely, but also the election still a little bit of ways away. So we have the ability to hopefully, implement some things and you know, kind of create the change that we’re hoping on our campuses. I’m going to toss it back to you, Adam, really quickly to talk a little bit more about the the resources, then the organization that you all that you work for, and how you are collecting data to gauge students democratic engagement.

Adam Gismondi
Sure, so the thing that folks in the audience may know us best from IEG is NSLVE, which is our sort of massive voting study that we started almost 10 years ago. We collect data on the 11 year election. So it’s the midterm, President midterm election years and presidential election years. And it’s a fairly unique study in that it’s based on actual behaviors instead of it’s not a survey, it’s, it’s actually, we take the voter records to match it up, which is why you get it, you know, nine or 10 months after the election. But what it allows us to do is give you very concrete, measurable, tangible ways of looking at civic participation on campus. So if you get one of those, one of those reports, that shows you voting rates and registration rates and yield rates on your campus, that’s us. We also do national looks at the national numbers, which we’ll get into regional looks. And we also have a pretty robust agenda around qualitative research, campus climate, equity, gap, research, and developing other resources for campuses.

Heather Shea
Awesome. We’re gonna add some of those to our resource list for this particular episode. But remind us of the acronym you said and NSLVE, but it’s the national study of,

Adam Gismondi
yeah, national study of learning voting and engagement. Okay, it’s a bit of a mouthful, predates me. I will say, maybe, but yeah, it’s one of those things where I think we were curious if it would work, and it’s, it’s flourished we currently have, well, over half of all students in the country are represented in the study in all 50 states. Wow,

Heather Shea
that’s great. That was really cool. Um, it’s definitely I know, you mentioned some things earlier in your intro, but I am really curious about some of the initiatives and strategies that you will have used to kind of promote engagement and support higher ed leaders in particular.

Stephanie King
Yeah, it’s a really great question how they’re, and as we’re leaning in, you mentioned earlier that what they left and still as far away, it’s 84 days for anyone listening at this moment in time, we’ll be a little bit around, and we’d probably closer to 80, if I’m doing my math correctly, but also just want to acknowledge that that’s sooner than we think, as our senior practitioners are going through orientation and move in and lead integration and all these things that happen with the first year and transfer experience for our institutions and the return of sophomores and juniors and seniors. Right. And so part of our program is to really help administrators, faculty, students, etc. Really think about what are the opportunities to embed and incorporate voter registration and education into the campus to be a part of the community. So building on the work that Id he does have those entail reports are so valuable to helping campuses to understand the data that’s available to them, which pockets of their students are registering to vote eligible to participate in turning out to participate? It’s really important to really back and say really, again, about how we’re incorporating our efforts holistically. Part of our strategy is to really think about how do you document and map out your strategies and tactics to help improve not only your ends of numbers within the report that you’ll receive from it he but also an improved campus culture. So we think of it as like pockets of works. We have communities of practice, which Michigan participates in as part of the big 10 voting challenge. We do communities of practice based on demographics as federally designated, so minority serving institutions, community colleges, HBCUs really runs the gamut. And then we also look at those day to day strategies that help students be empowered to vote. So we have an all in to vote.org website, which is a one stop shop for students to do all the things that Su mentioned in her outset of registering to vote, verifying the registration, finding their polling location, researching their ballot, making a plan. Hopefully executing that plan, and then also encouraging their peers to get involved in the process. Because we know it’s not always a one for one in the work that we do. And it’s really about campus community and culture to foster the act of voting, and then also larger community change.

Heather Shea
Yeah, I love that. And I think, as I was looking through all of the websites that you all are affiliated with, I was like, Oh, my gosh, there’s so many great resources here. And so this will also be a great opportunity for us to kind of promote those through this through this episode, and give some folks some tangible tools about how if they’re not already thinking 80 days away, what they might be able to put in place. Su, and Renee, I know, given our work together, that you all have been doing MSU vote for quite a long time. But could you talk a little bit about what specifically the work is, and then also what roles each of you play, because I know, co chairing this as an in addition to your other full time positions on campus, and, and maybe just a little bit more of kind of the nuts and bolts behind the scenes of MSU vote? Renee, I’ll start with you.

Renee C. Brown
All right. Well, I mean, we have a coalition that represents all in all corners of our institution and our community. And so we convene that group, we develop together strategies for making sure that students have lots of opportunities to register to vote, to be educated about what will be on the ballots at where they’re voting. And to talk to them a little bit more about voting locally in the East Lansing area, we don’t have a preference where they vote. But we do want them to understand that they are part of the community here that they’re living in for nine months of the year, at least, and this is, I think, a new challenge as we come back at in the fall, where we will have students who have just never really lived on campus, or are so new to the experience, that we’ll be talking a lot more with them about that. I will turn it over to you Su, Su does a really wonderful job of maintaining outstanding relationships with our local municipality. So we have the privilege of having precincts on campus and our local clerk on campus. Su do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Suchitra Webster
Yeah, I’d be happy to do that. Renee is absolutely right, in that building partnerships, has been really important both off campus and on campus. So in our roles as a co chairing this initiative, we work with as a clerk without question, we also work with our county clerk, we have connections to our Secretary of State’s office, then we also work with the League of Women Voters and do our best to ensure that we have faculty and staff representation and student representation, of course, on our coalition, in terms of the work with the clerk, I think the current clerk and her predecessors have all been very committed to including student voices in the entire Democratic endeavor that is the election cycle. And that is everything from, you know, helping our students to get registered right where they live, whether that’s on or off campus, all the way to, as Renee said, ensuring that we have five different precincts right on our campus. So for some people who want to vote in person, it’s as simple as walking downstairs in your residence hall and showing up there to vote. In the run up to any election, our clerk also ensures that she and her staff are available on campus. So we had one satellite office last year, which was static and in one location. And now what she’s committed to do after working with a lot of our facilities folks at MSU, is she will be rotating every single week in the month of October leading up to the election to be available for students but also for faculty and staff who have questions want to understand, you know, the, the details of how to register or where they can get their absentee ballot or any of those things even though she is the clerk for the city of East Lansing, her reach and connection to other folks throughout the state is really important and helpful to our students. So I would just want to leave this by saying and we’ll explore this more I think as the conversation goes on, for Rene and for myself, I think we’ve discovered that it takes both up sort of a top down approach from the administration and also a grassroots or groundswell to shift a culture and to sort of make this tie type of behavior the norm at the institution. And that’s not to say we’re done, we have a long way to go. But each year, we seem to see how bridging the gap between, you know, the, the grassroots and above just makes this work more important and helps it to become stronger. Sorry, that was probably longer than what Renee was

Renee C. Brown
I think it’s fantastic too. And I just, I would like to add Su to we work really hard with faculty so that this is part of the student’s academic life too. And so our goals have focused around that student affairs aspect or student experience aspect. But also preparing resources, sharing resources, supporting faculty, so that students are hearing from their professors in their classrooms as well, and having those great conversations.

Heather Shea
That’s fantastic. Well, I think the relationships really matter, right. And I think that’s probably what I would assume would work on most campuses is building those common relationships across, you know, across the campus boundary right to the town and to the municipality in which you’re housed. But then also building those on campus as well. So switching gears just a little bit, and I think maybe this is where I’m at, because I just my previous episode was just about kind of student engagement post roe. And so maybe it’s because of that recent Supreme Court decision that has me feeling this way. But it feels like the 2022 midterm election is more consequential than typical midterm elections. Is Is there something different? And if so, what is different about this upcoming 2022 fall election? Stephanie, I’m going to pass it to you first.

Stephanie King
Thanks, Heather. I think you’re you’re right, that there’s a lot of feeling right now compared to previous midterm elections. And not that there weren’t hot topics in 2018, and 2014, and so forth. But right now we’re coming to an age where individuals have information at their fingertips when it comes to decisions around bodily autonomy, student loan debt, food insecurities, election regulation changes, there’s more information available to 18 year olds as they’re casting their vote, and 30 year olds and 40 year olds and so forth than there ever has been before. And those feelings are real. And folks are starting to understand the impact of the vote is individualized, right? While we care about community. And as you heard from Sundar in a moment ago, like it, it takes an organization to make the voting efforts happen and hopefully happen as seamless as possible on a campus, it’s still individualized. And it’s still important for a person to see themselves in the electorate and to see themselves represented in the individuals that sit at the house and at the Senate that make decisions about their ability to be in community. And I think that’s a heightened moment for us to capitalize on of teaching about the democratic process at large teaching the value of the vote, and then also leaning into it like it’s gonna be uncomfortable, like we’re built on a system that wasn’t meant to represent what we currently are today and our diverse demographics of humans, right. Like it wasn’t built that way. And so how do we change that? It’s by standing up and getting involved. And so yes, I think it absolutely feels different. And I think there’s also the concern around apathy, where folks voted in 2020, and also in 2021, at the local level, and we’re like, oh, my vote didn’t count. Like, I didn’t see my candidate when I didn’t see my issue go into effect or not into effect, until why does it matter? And it’s like that sort of complacency is like you might as well not vote, because you’re already putting us in a predicament. And so we need to heighten those emotions into 2022, for folks to say, What do you care about, and I’m not telling you how to vote or who to vote for any of those types of things. We talk on a human level, if you want to call me to a coffee shop at a later point in life. But in this moment, it’s just understanding every individual vote has weight, and that weight matters. And we on this call, and in other spaces have a role to play with that. And I know Adam, Adam has more of the data than I will ever have. So definitely want to lean into Adam and ask like, you know, as we’re thinking about the growth and the election process between 2014 and 2018, like, No, you can’t predict into a glass ball. And Heather, I don’t know if I’m allowed to turn the conversation to Adam necessarily. But as Anton was mapping, what does that look like ensue from the campus experience? What are you feeling within that?

Suchitra Webster
I was just gonna say, before Adam gets into all those details, I also don’t think it’s hyperbolic for us to say that democracy is is threatened. You know, there are a lot of challenges. And if one has been apathetic before or thought of it as a one and done thing where, yeah, okay, that one time I voted, or I did it, and it didn’t turn out the way I wanted. It’s a it’s a muscle to be exercised, developed and built and, you know, as institutions of higher ed, you know, we talk about, oh, we want students to be you know, analytical thinkers and they’re going to think critically and be effective coming communicators. And we also want to develop students to be engaged citizens. And this is sort of where the rubber meets the road. And we can do those things and get people into that, that practice. And I, I just say that to say now more than ever, apathy cannot win win the day. And that helps fire us up to get everyone even more engaged. So, Adam, I turn to you.

Heather Shea
What would you add, Adam?

Adam Gismondi
Sure. I mean, were you gonna say something I didn’t want to?

Renee C. Brown
Oh, I was just gonna share with Heather that I agree that this does feel like a different election. And that is because it is. And the stakes are pretty high in the sense that, you know, Roe v. Wade, the overturn of that has really pushed this back to the States. And this is not something that students are necessarily fully aware of. And in some states, that will could potentially mean a change in a state constitution, it could mean a turn over in a governor seat, or Senate seat. And so all of that information is, it’s hard to capture student’s attention and share with them how some of these things play out. And that so from my perspective, it feels particularly heightened in terms of making sure that students understand the process, not how to vote, as Stephanie said, but understand the process. And there’s a lot at stake in the process, though, I just wanted to share that. And I’m dying to hear any data that Adam has, always.

Adam Gismondi
Sure. I do want to start with the first question that Heather raised, which was like, why does this feel different? And is it different? It’s funny, like for us, so we have data going back to 2012, on elections, which is not that long of history. There exists data around young people, or what sometimes people consider a proxy for college students. It’s not a perfect one, because you know, not all college students are young, and you know, that sort of that sort of thing. But it’s, it’s, you know, you if you look at each election, there are at, in the lightest terms quirks around each election, and each one is unique in its own way. So it’s, it’s sort of hard to say like, what’s a trend? And versus like, what is, you know, a product of the conditions of a particular moment. But I think the reality is, we’re probably at a turning point in this country and globally, right now. And we have some decisions to make as a society as a global society and as individual nations around the world, and I think that there are decisions being made every day, small ones and large ones. And I think that, you know, if you watch like a movie or something, it’s like, this was the turning point. And I think there are probably multiple turning points. And I think that there are multiple elections that are that are part of the same series of consequential moments for this country. And I think that we’re in sort of a continuous one right now. And I think 2022 is, is certainly part of that. And I think that people are feeling it. One of the conversations that we had, I would say, going back to 2016. And then kind of past that point, was that party politics and like electoral politics had crossed over into almost like a pop culture discussion, like it went from being a thing that that, you know, a sitcom, or a late night show would like pop in and out of or like that you’d hear on a podcast, and it started pushing its way into the center where like, it was unavoidable for people. And they’re, you know, we could speculate on all sorts of reasons for that, like my, you know, some of the research I’ve done would point to social media being part of the reason for that. But I don’t know, I would say I’m feeling similarly, Heather, that this is a consequential one. And I think a lot of people we speak to on campuses feel that way, as well. So that’s kind of where I’m at on that one.

Heather Shea
Yeah, I just think, you know, the entire environment just feels different in terms of people thinking about it, talking about it, and maybe it’s a 24 hour news cycle, but that’s been a thing for a while and but I do think that social media is playing a huge role. I just happen to have been in Washington DC this past weekend on a on a trip with my two teenagers and then my partner and his teenager, and it’s just really interesting being in DC and kind of feeling the atmosphere and there is definitely just kind, feels a little bit of tension. I don’t know. So I am curious about how, how you all have thought about voting though and in general about how how students do vote. And so Adam, this might be the most obvious question, but do college students vote? And has that changed over time? And what information do you have to share with us about, about this information about college students and their voting habits?

Adam Gismondi
Sure. So I think, even just a decade ago, there were a lot of assumptions around whether it was, you know, our campuses, very active students are very active politically here, verse or like, the sort of, you know, people blaming young people and saying they’re apathetic, like there are a lot of assumptions thrown around. And I think cliched understandings of how these things work. And that’s one of the things I think we’re most proud of with the NSLVE study is that we’re, we’re kind of forcing institutions to put their money where their mouth is, and to kind of deal with the reality of their numbers. And for us, like voting is sort of a check point. It’s not the end all be all, necessarily, but it’s an important pulse check for democracy. So in terms of the midterm elections, and some of the earlier data that we have, the numbers were abysmal, I mean, just like, there’s no other way to really say it. And 2014, the average student voting rate was it was under 20%, it was in the 19% range. And for the youngest students, which is like the 18 to 21 year old students, we’re talking like low teens, like 13 14% Student turnout. And I tend to compare like similar elections, so like midterm to midterm or presidential your presidential year, just because the numbers are dependent sometimes on not because the Presidential ones are just, you know, bigger events in a sense. So from 14 to 18, that number basically doubled more than doubled. It was the student voting rate went to over 40%, which kind of outpaced everyone’s expectations for students. Still low, I mean, still obviously, like a lot of room for improvement, and that there’s a range of, of change, but 99% of our campuses, and like I said, we have around 1200 schools now in our study, 99% of campuses improved from 14 to 18, which was just stunning to our team. And in 2020, we saw a kind of the similar trend. A little over half of students voted and 2016 and the Clinton Trump election year, it was around 52%. And then it went to around 66%. In 2020. I always tell people, when when we’re in person, when not, you know, pre COVID, we have a whiteboard on our office, and we would take guesses as to what we expected as a team, the voting rate to be and I believe the 66% number was higher than every one guessed, Nancy, who founded our office, it was the most optimistic, and her guests, but two thirds of students voted, which basically matched the national rate just for everybody, which is sort of unheard of, for college students. So this is my very long way of saying that. Yes, students are, it seems, turning into voters. And we think it’s really important, especially like some of the programs that people like Su and Renee put into place on campus. Once you vote, it’s it’s you know, we know through the data that it’s habit forming, we always say which means that you get in the system, you’re more likely to be contacted by politicians, offices, campaigns, sort of public outreach projects. And you’re you’re more likely to then vote again, once you’re contacted asked reminded that sort of thing when you get those nudges. So it’s really important once you vote once, you’re then more likely to vote again. So this can be like a real trend, like a lifelong fan. Once someone votes. They’ve learned the mechanics of it. And in a sense, they’re more plugged in to the system. Personally, I like I just wish everyone voted. But that’s not the system we live in right now. So yeah, there’s some there’s some real positive signs, but we do risk. Stephanie alluded to kind of like a ledge was there’s a lot of tension in 2020. So we’re gonna have to see what happens in 2022.

Heather Shea
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, and I also recognize that for folks, for international students who aren’t citizens, the United States or others who you know, that’s it’s not possible for them to vote. This is a complicated conversation on college and university campuses. But I am really interested in what are the issues that you all are discovering are the things that students are most kind of concerned about, or most driving their engagement in voting particularly and then we can Talk about broader democratic engagement as well.

Adam Gismondi
Sure. So one of the things that we, we like to remind people of like you, and you get your install report, and there might be an instinct to just flip to the third page and say, here are the top line numbers, like, we just want to know that. But it’s we always say it’s not important just how many people voted, but who voted, and that you want to really, really examine the pages that come after that. And like any data that you have to dig in on equity gaps, and look at who’s participating who’s being kind of left behind by the system and the efforts in place, we have some early findings that, that show that even though the 2020 increase happened across the board, at every single institution type, the rate of change was a little bit lower at the two year public institution. So that may be a matter of resources, geography, like there’s sort of many possible explanations for that. But that’s why you kind of have to stay on top of it. All that being said, the, the current cohort of students seem to be very much issue based and not necessarily party politics based. So things that drive action and interest in political and social systems in this country are things like climate change, gun violence, sometimes divisive individual candidates, there’s no denying that Donald Trump was very much on the ballot in 2020, whether it was students who really liked him, or were, you know, vehemently opposed to him. And then, of course, you have kind of like sub versions of that, and like various Senate congressional races. But yeah, they’re, I think, like the student loan crisis, and some of the issues around that, like, there are some issues that you, you may be able to guess, are on there. And in one of the reports that we’ll share afterwards, you can you can dig in and see some of the topics that really hit for students these days. But it’s, it’s like, it’s a little bit of a moving target. But right now, I think that that’s kind of where we see students at.

Suchitra Webster
I was just gonna say at what Adams talking about has been super helpful, even for us because we are a participating campus. And in those reports, we also get a deeper dive from a curricular standpoint. So you know, when we know that the rate of participation, for instance, for those potentially in STEM fields is not as strong as we find in education or in some of our social science fields, etc. When we’re having those conversations with Dean’s or program chairs or whatever, it’s it’s very helpful information, you know, so that they can know where their students are and where the thinking is. So I just find the the data that comes from the NSLVE reports incredibly useful and helpful for our, our day to day work that Renee and I have to do.

Heather Shea
And I’m going to stay with you and just ask some additional kind of basic questions, not just who votes but can students vote, right. And I think part of this goes back to people imagining that there’s all kinds of repercussions for changing your voter registration. So for questions, can college students who live in one state register to vote where their campus is located? And how do they go about doing that? That’s question one.

Suchitra Webster
Okay, yes, the answer is yes. Yes, yes, yes, we want our college students to vote and participate, as is their right to do so. So again, we I think knowing one’s campus is very important. So at Michigan State, we still have the majority of our undergraduates come from in state. So that’s whereas even at the University of Michigan, there’s a much larger out of state population on our website MSUvote.msu.edu. We do provide links for students who want to get information in their home states because they want to continue to vote there. And that may be another question you are going to ask because, potentially, especially now, and I will add that some parents feel very strongly about where their students should or should not be voting. As Rene said, for us, the most important thing is that they participate in this process. And we certainly encourage and our clerk and other municipal leaders would say this is really your home. And we would love for you to be involved in things like city council elections, because that’s going to have have a greater impact on some of the things that you care about as a student. So we have that option. I will also add that in our state, there were some laws passed in 2018, which really opened things up for students. So when you think about no reason absentee ballots are voting, you know, that was a great thing. And that really helped to demystify the process and make it just easier for students to vote. So so that’s another thing. But I guess to answer your questions, we absolutely want students to vote, students can walk into the clerk’s office, they’d be happy to help. Our website has directions, so does the Secretary of State’s site in Michigan, which is, you know, if you go to michigan.gov/vote, everything you need, there’s a section just for students? So, you know, and again, these other entities like Stephanie, and the all in, you can go to these websites, and you can look things up by state or, you know, whatever you need. There’s no, as you said, Stephanie, earlier, there’s no deficit of information or deficiency in that. So

Heather Shea
yeah, with So why might a student want to change their registration? And why might they not want to change their registration? And maybe there? Are there any kind of repercussions on financial aid? Those are my my other questions,

Suchitra Webster
there are not repercussions on financial aid. And sometimes that is sort of a some misinformation that’s utilized to maybe discourage people. What we we just like to tell students is that this is an important part of your development as a student and as a citizen. And so we really want you to participate in this process. So students have a lot of different reasons. I mean, some aren’t just good intentions, like, oh, well, I know this person in my community is running for x, or I’m interested in this issue or worked on it, my parents think it would be better. But then we have to say, well, what are you going to be doing on Election Day? Have you already, you know, contacted your local clerk to find out about getting that absentee ballot? And, you know, This is really basic, but do you know where you can buy some stamps? If you’re, you know, living in a particular location? And are you going to mail that in time? Are you planning to go home? What is your plan? So for us, I mean, again, going back to this notion of registrations in for us, we found and I think, Adam, I think Nancy, would agree with this, that getting people registered isn’t always the problem. It’s the, it’s the part after that, where they make a plan and re and the plan may include buying a roll of stamps. So it’s, it’s all of those intricate pieces to to casting the ballot. So we are happy to help students, we would love for students to vote in the community where they reside and make a difference and have an impact there. But if someone is adamant about wanting to remain in their home community and be a voter there, we will help facilitate that process in any way that we can.

Stephanie King
Let’s see, if I can add on briefly, I think that was a great rendition of helping students understand that they have a choice, just like snowbirds have a choice depending upon where they have that dual residency, but also thinking about the values alignment. So sometimes it can be influenced by family members say like we’ve always voted here, this is where you vote, this is what you do. But as people start to figure out who they are, which is part of the college experience, they might say I have more of a community within Michigan as compared to my home state and Pennsylvania. And so that’s where I want to vote based on that value alignment as compared to the this is the way it’s always been. I think the other piece is that young people are college students, if I may, are incredibly savvy and information rich, and how they’re making their decisions. And so there is tools, as Adam mentioned, between like the youth kind of scaling, not just college students, with our colleagues at Circle, where there’s a youth electoral, significant index. So where might your vote mean different things if you have the choice between states or locations to vote. And that’s not to say like, you should vote here, because the Republican ticket is really needed, or the Democratic ticket is needed, but instead like really assessing what the impact is that you’re looking to have and what ability you have as an individual to exercise that right. So yeah, I don’t think there’s an information deficit as Sue highlighted earlier for me, but there’s an opportunity for college students to really determine for themselves, like, again, where they find community where they find value, and how to process that choice, which maybe as educators, we have a role in helping them see that. It’s like taking the horse to water but I can’t force it but trying to say like, Hey, let’s figure out all the things that might be helpful to you as a person.

Heather Shea
Yeah, I keep going back to those student development theories of self authorship, right. So so certain points in time those formulas that you have engaged in, stop working and you hit that crossroad. And at what point do you as a, as a college student, start writing your own story. And some of that has to do with, you know, how you identify yourself, but also what kinds of actions you take that might be different than the ways that your parents had before. So I think that’s great. And I think, you know, we’ve been talking a lot about voting in particular. But I do think that this is a part of a larger conversation about democratic engagement, and just in general engagement on our college and university campuses. And so the election, you know, is a period of time, it feels kind of like it depending upon how much news you’re consuming, that it’s just this endless, kind of slew of conversation about who’s running and for what and what are the things that are happening? But how do we, Stephanie, in I’ll hand this back to you kind of promote this investment in active engagement in the democratic processes. And get students involved in that? And in particularly, how do we do it without appearing partisan, too, because I think that that’s often a struggle is if I mentioned, you need to vote it saying, Why and for whom or for what?

Stephanie King
Yeah, that’s a really great question. Heather, as the election is only to your point, like a moment in time, yes, there’s primary. And then there’s the general and there’s likely some local elections sprinkled within there, depending upon your communities. But there are moments or days, they’re not about changing ecosystems. And so as part of our work with all in its thinking about that bigger picture of institutionalization, which is a heavy AI word, I realized, but thinking about all the facets of the work that goes into the college experience that’s beyond the ballot box to really crank out active and informed citizens and all aspects of the word. Then also, you mentioned thinking about employing other parts of our campus community that can’t exercise their right to vote. So are international students or DACA students, or those that were previously incarcerated, depending upon the state, or 17 year olds that are taking college prep courses, or whatever the thing is, like, there’s so many tools and strategies to get them involved. And whether you’re a Coordinator of Student Affairs who has been prepping your first voter registration table for NBR, D coming up in September, or you’re the president that gets to make the decision on where you’re putting budgetary resources, like we all have a role to play and making sure that elections aren’t just this November, but it’s a conversation year round, because in January, you’re gonna have new transfer students coming into your institution or new first years. So how do you talk to them about the voting process and making sure they’re prepared for the next upcoming cycle? I think the other thing is that Renee and Su can talk a lot more about Michigan’s kind of efforts to really think about how do you do dialogue across difference? How do you do service learning? How do you do community service programs that maybe touch more on those issues that students are passionate about? And then attaching that to the exercise of the vote, right? Like if you always care about food insecurity, if you don’t talk about politics and vote, you’re always going to need someone on that Saturday to go work at the food bank, because the politics doesn’t change if you don’t attach that to. And I know Adam can share it. I’m Adam, if you wouldn’t mind sharing a little bit more about the work that it he does, regarding the election impaired reports that have come out that really name steps that practitioners can take to make a change, and again, using the big word of institutionalizing the efforts across a campus.

Adam Gismondi
Sure. So when we initially started releasing the NSLVE data, you know, we don’t want it to end there. And for us, it’s it’s kind of like, Where does the rubber hit the road on this topic. So we’ve been carrying out a series of campus climate studies that fall under the banner of what we call politics 365, because it is a 365 day year proposition. And we don’t want people to fall into that trap of being like, okay, election day is over, like, we’ll revisit this three months before the next election. Like that’s just, that’s not going to, that’s not going to stick on campus, it’s not going to, like you’re gonna it’s not a wise way to do this. And for us, it’s all about promoting learning, it’s educating for democracy is kind of like the key, the key way of thinking about this. And we’re educators in our office. And so, for us, we’ve gone around to campuses that have unusually and unexpectedly high and low college student voting rates, compared to what you might expect, given their demographics and students served on campus. And there are several themes you can you can see in our work, that we put out his politics 365. And then we’ve put out recommendations for how do we become one of these like top campuses based on what the data tells us? And I’ll tell you, the most prevailing theme that we saw and that we still continue to see is dialogue across campus, talking politics, so that’s not just you know, you’re a political science student in the classroom. Like sometimes your faculty member will bring up something that’s in the news, but it’s You know, at Tufts, we have a math faculty member who specializes in talking about and studying gerrymandering. We have the engineering school, we’ve been over there and talked about equitable city planning and things like what cities have bridges that are crumbling and infrastructure problems and talking about issues of power. And you know, of course in Michigan, like if you look at the Flint water crisis, like we put out a dialogue guide on talking about like, why, why are some communities underserved versus others and looking at kind of historical inequities and things like that. So this dialogue across campus, it happens in the classroom and happens in co curricular spaces, many of which are intentionally designed by Student Affairs, professionals. So it’s about having those events, those opportunities, like kind of meeting there, where the students are in the res halls. That’s, that’s really a big part of, of embedding this across campus. And the last thing I’ll note is like, so we put out a report called election imperatives 2020. And that was recommendations that we started clustering them by areas of campus, so like senior leaders, like your president, and Provost, and then academic areas, faculty, department chairs, and then kind of student facing folks, including students themselves. Because, for me, like a lot of this is about social networks, and like human social networks, and like how information is shared. And when you think about, like the bonds that happen and how information is shared. In an ideal world, like the way that this works, is that you have buy in from the top level. So you have a campus leader, a president, who supports the staff and the faculty and truly believes in this, and also uses the bully pulpit to not only promote these things, but to also stand up for things like academic freedom for faculty, for student voting rights in the municipality. And for helping put in some actual dollars and resources behind this work. This often too often turns into a labor of love on campus where you have someone who it’s, if it’s in their job description, it’s like the fifth sixth thing on what they’re responsible for. And then it’s a committee of volunteers that are doing it. And while I have great love and admiration for those people, they need some support. So ideally, you have that side, you also have students leading students, as someone who has been through many student development theory classes also have their when you say that language, I’m like, Yeah, I hear ya. Back from a Golda, like, I’m right there with you. Students, leading other students and providing those opportunities for one another, like, that’s where effective change happens. And then it’s sort of like cross cutting work. And people in in positions of have access to things like the campus calendar, or space on campus, like, there’s so many different ways that you can do this.

Adam Gismondi
That scaffolding happens across campus, it’s faculty members making space for the campus voter coalition to come in and have five minutes at the beginning or end of class to say, you can register in the state of Michigan, you know, in Lansing, or, you know, like that, that sort of thing. So yes. So anyway, yeah, there’s there’s plenty of different ways that that this, that this can happen on campus, but institutionalizing it really requires a cross campus buy in, and folks working together across campus.

Heather Shea
So, Renee, I’m going to hand this is I think our last question before, our final question to you is, if somebody who’s watching today doesn’t have an initiative on their campus, I know we’re using Michigan as an Michigan State University in the state of Michigan as an example today. How might they go about doing that? And then, you know, why is this important? Why is this a student affairs issue? That might already be obvious, but I’m really interested in the how do we create engagement initiatives, if none exists on our campus?

Renee C. Brown
Well, it’s, I guess, it might be hard to find sometimes. But I guess I would recommend because Stephanie mentioned earlier, this idea of service learning. So for example, on our campus, our mission in the center is to develop lifelong civic and social responsibility, responsibility. We do that through a lot of different ways that could be service, but it could also be teaching students about advocacy, teaching them about community building, and we have a number of ways that we do that. So one thing that someone could do if they feel they don’t have this initiative on campus, would be to reach out out to units like that to see what is what is actually happening or how some of that work might be able to be partnered with to strengthen something more around democratic engagement and voting. I would also recommend that folks look to their students. Su works really closely with our student government, they’re very involved in this topic. And so looking at registered student organizations who have an interest in student government, that’s another place where, you know, you can reach out to see where partners are, or to get something started. Of course, if you have a public policy school, well, you’re right in there, because you have, you know, strong advocates as well. I would, I guess I’m in the state of disbelief that any campus anywhere would have nothing. But if they feel that they have nothing, I think those are really good places to start. And if, if nothing else, beginning your own campaign about why this is important, with administrators and faculty, and student affairs professionals is really an important way up way to go as well.

Heather Shea
Thank you so much. All of you. Thank you so much for your time today, we always wrap up every episode of Student Affairs now with a question about what are you pondering, questioning, thinking about traveling? Now, if you had to say, in a few words, and then if you wouldn’t mind also sharing how and where people can connect with you? That would be that would be great. And Stephanie, I’m going to start with you.

Stephanie King
Thank you so much, Heather. And thanks. You know, Renee, and Su and Adam for being in this space. today. It’s always great to be in a room full of folks doing really great work, whether that’s nationally, locally, etc. I just really appreciate the opportunity to be with you think that things that I’m thinking about is maybe to raise optimism of I don’t believe there’s a campus not doing something or a community not doing something. And as we talked about today, there’s multiple prongs to engage. So with us, like if you’re a senior leader wanting to make a forward statement, we have the all in President’s commitment. We saw earlier this month that the NBA just announced no games on election day. So if you’re an athletic coach trying to figure out how to get involved, like, we also have our coach’s pledge, and we work with the all vote no play team to try and figure out civic drills. If you’re someone who’s literally like, no one’s doing anything. And I tend to register voters because I think it’s important in my class, like you can use all into vote.org, or any other portal that you’re like, Hey, I just want to get them voter information that’s accurate, not misinformation, and to help students through the process. Like, I think there’s people to help. If it was, you know, thinking about Mr. Rogers, like, if you look around, there’s always gonna be people willing to help. And so just take a moment to really assess like, who’s your helpers who’s in your coalition, whether it’s at the top of your senior leaders, or just students just returning back to campus or starting campus, I’m very optimistic about the engagement with young people and with administrators and faculty to say, we really care. And one way to say that is to give opportunity, and the way that if folks want to get involved with all in, again, we’re a nonpartisan initiative. So to earlier points of like the fear of partisanship or how they’re talking about if you do something, then it’s perceived as one camp or the other, like, you’ve everything very much. So on that narrow line of walking between the two parties, or multiple parties, in some states, to say that there’s opportunities for engagement. To do this, you can go to all in challenge.org, to our website, if you’re looking for tools, you can go to all in to vote.org. Or you just want to say, Hey, Stephanie, you’ve said this thing, contact me at all in challenge at Civic nation.org. And certainly follow up with the best person or point of contact or resource that would be helpful to you.

Heather Shea
Thank you so much, Stephanie. Su, your final thoughts?

Suchitra Webster
I think lately, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking not just at work, but outside of work about higher ed, and it’s connection to our democracy. And lucky for me, there are a lot of books out right now. One of them is I think it’s Ron Ron Daniels book on what universities Oh, democracy. And there’s a lot of information embedded in a lot of literature, articles, etc. I think universities are trying to reimagine their place in the world. And they’re thinking about democracy, the common good, the public, good. Accessibility. You know, it’s just re envisioning, and I think democracy is in a similar position for us for a lot of different reasons. So for me, yes, this election feels a little different because it feels more weighty. When you think about those two things together. And I think what Renee was talking about earlier, you know, this notion of having difficult conversations we’ve all talked about a little bit, but this discourse, I think, for too long, we’ve been like Well Oh, it’s Politics, but politics is based on, you know, our values and sharing and accessibility and having civic and civil discourse with one another. And so all of those things are intertwined. And interestingly enough, that’s what we seek in well developed students who become citizens. So these things are not just two separate things out there, they belong together. And I’m, I’m really thinking a lot about that right now. And in terms of getting in touch, again, I would go to MSU vote.msu.edu, where you will find my contact info, I believe Renee’s may be there and just eager to connect with anyone who’s interested in talking about this further. Thank you for this great community.

Heather Shea
Absolutely. Renee, final thoughts?

Renee C. Brown
Oh, Heather, you didn’t ask me what’s keeping me up at night directly? But I will answer as though that’s what’s going on. So I think about, you know, in the same vein, as, as Su mentioned, what do we owe democracy, it’s, you know, in Michigan students take a civics class as seniors, and then the rest of the education that they receive about this is just something that really comes from their parents, right. And so as you’re thinking about that self development, and you’re here on campus, or students are here on campus, I feel as though we have to not only be patient and understanding, but figure out in which ways we can provide the right kind of education, continuing sort of education, about these topics for students, and how we do that in all of the spaces on campus. That’s really important. I think the other thing is, it’s okay to disagree. Right. And so, thinking, we would measure events in the past in the Student Affairs world by participation, but we maybe need to think a little bit broader that like, do we have multiple viewpoints represented was there, you know, a good conversation, where people disagreed, and that they worked through that. And though, those are things that I would really hope that we can find ways to do, and you can find us on MSU vote.msu.edu. Also, you can find more information about civic and social responsibility on community engaged learning at .msu.edu as well, too. And thank you so much for having us on today. Really appreciate it.

Heather Shea
Absolutely. And you might have noticed Stephanie had to duck out, this conversation has been so fabulous. But she had to go do some childcare pickup, our own civic engagement. Adam, what are your final thoughts? What’s troubling you keeping you up at night, as Renee said? Or? Or what are your things that you’re kind of thinking about as a result of our conversation today?

Adam Gismondi
You know, in our office, one of the things that we like to say is that we’re partisans for democracy. And so like, we try to stand for things that are that are pro democracy. And in that vein, like one of the things that I’m really thinking a lot about is, what will the conditions be? A month from now? What will the conditions be a couple of months from now? Because you have a lot of like, political prognosticators who will say, here’s who I think is going to be president elected in 2024? And it’s like, you don’t know. I mean, like, you really don’t like it. There are many History is littered with many people who think it was taken for granted that they would become like this person at some point. And so thinking about like the the conditions like the socio political conditions of the moment, like, like I said, like a month from now, a week from now, those are the things that I’m that I’m constantly thinking about. One of the projects that we’re working on right now is on threats to democracy and trying to really state those and explore them. And then also looking at pillars of an aspirational vision of democracy and kind of like, where should we all be moving towards and like aligning our work in a way that gets you to this point. Renee has heard this speech from me already on another project that we’re working on. So those are some of the things that that I’m really thinking about. And also, like, Will activism translate into, like the more traditional forms of political participation? I’m really curious about what that’s going to look like in practice in the next couple of years, in the next 10 years. So I, I am curious about it, because I think that there are some people that that don’t view politics in the same way that they used to. So in terms of reaching out our office is tufts.edu. And on that you can find more information about NSLVE more information about the election imperatives report and politics 365. If you want to reach out to me, our our whole offices, emails are up on that website. On Twitter at Adam Gismondi and feel free to always reach out on LinkedIn and connect with me there, I’m always happy to chat with folks. And yeah, we’ll be in touch definitely as an office, definitely sign up for our newsletter, as well in our office, because that’s where they’re in Twitter is where a lot of our information gets shared first.

Heather Shea
Thank you. Thank you all so much. And I just to pick up on your last point, Adam about student activism, you’re you’re queuing up my next episode where I’m going to be talking to the authors of a book about identity based activism. So I think I am going to ask that question like, does this lead toward the type of political civic engagement democratic engagement that we hope? Because I think that is the way that we create the change, right, that we’re hoping to see is to actually get engaged and do do something not just not just talk about it. Thank you to all of you and to Stephanie, as well for joining me today for this episode of Student Affairs Now. I’m really grateful for your time and all the contributions to the conversation today. Thanks to our dedicated behind the scenes work of our producer. We have given Nat Ambrosey a promotion from production assistant to producer. Thank you Nat for everything that you do to make us look great and sound great. And we are so grateful for all of your time.

Heather Shea
If you’re listening today and not already receiving our weekly newsletter, please visit our website at studentaffairsnow.com and scroll to the bottom of the homepage to add your email to our MailChimp list. While you’re there, please check out our archives, thanks to the sponsors of today’s episode LeaderShape partners with colleges and universities to create transformational leadership experiences both in person and virtually for students and professionals with a focus on creating a more just caring and thriving world. LeaderShape offers engaging learning experiences on courageous dialogue, integrity, equity, resilience, and community building. To find out more, please visit www.leadershape.org/virtual programs or connect with them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Our second sponsor today is Vector Solutions. How will your institution rise to reach today’s socially conscious generation, these students report commitments to safety well being an inclusion as important as academic rigor when selecting a college, it is time to reimagine the work of student affairs as an investment, not an expense. For over 20 years Vector Solutions, which now includes the campus Prevention Network formerly ever phi has been the partner of choice for 2000 Plus colleges and universities and national organizations. With nine efficacy studies behind our courses you can trust and have full confidence that you will be using the standard of care for students safety, well being and inclusion, transform the future of your institution and the community you serve. Learn more at vectorsolutions.com/studentaffairsnow. Please take a moment to visit our website. Click on the sponsors to learn more. Again, I’m Heather Shea thanks to everybody who’s listening and watching. And thanks again to our fabulous guests today. Make it a great week everyone.

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