25 signatures reached
To: President Andrew Hamilton, Provost Katherine E. Fleming, NYU Senior Leadership Team
NYU: Let Students Vote! Make Election Day 2020 a Curricular Event
In order to focus students’ and employees’ energies on the importance of voting in the general election, the Administration should publicly name November 3rd, 2020 as a day for curricular tie-in to voting-related issues.
This could take many forms: a study of voting percentages in a math class; the history of voting rights in political science and law courses; brief lessons on literature that centers democratic values in humanities courses.
What’s most important, though, is that the university encourages its community to focus on the significance of Election Day. We believe this curricular event would provide community members with a teachable moment: an opportunity to reflect and to be the global citizens that NYU strives to create.
This could take many forms: a study of voting percentages in a math class; the history of voting rights in political science and law courses; brief lessons on literature that centers democratic values in humanities courses.
What’s most important, though, is that the university encourages its community to focus on the significance of Election Day. We believe this curricular event would provide community members with a teachable moment: an opportunity to reflect and to be the global citizens that NYU strives to create.
Why is this important?
The 2020 general election represents a singular moment when voter enfranchisement is more important than ever. Considering our current national backdrop—a global pandemic, evident use of force against citizens, environmental disasters, and significant civil unrest—November 3rd, 2020 is an essential chance for Americans to recognize their civic responsibility. For these reasons, it is incumbent upon NYU to make an innovative adaptation to the normal academic calendar in order to encourage its students and employees to vote.
While we believe that NYU should establish Election Day as a consistent academic holiday going forward, we hope that curricular tie-ins for this November 3rd can create an important culture around civic responsibility. In this vein, we stand with NYU Law School’s decision to make Election Day a holiday, as well as the work of GenVote@NYU and its partners, including the February 2020 resolution by the Student Government Assembly.
NYU has had difficulty with voter turnout in the past. To quote the GenVote@NYU petition, “According to a 2016 Tufts University report, New York University's voter turnout rate lags behind the institutional average by 2.6% and behind all private research institutions by 5.3%.” Considering that NYU is one of the largest private universities in the country, it has a distinctive opportunity to model civic engagement in academe—especially at a moment when voting is so critical to the maintenance of American democracy.
Our hope is to amplify the work already being done by university groups to secure Election Day as an academic holiday. Since we’re already in the academic year, making November 3rd an ongoing holiday is impossible at the moment, but we want to open conversation towards more fundamental change. Larger changes are necessary, but this proposal is doable, attainable, and with important implications.
We want to remove as many roadblocks as possible: students should not be forced to choose between attending class and exercising their right to vote. This action would have an immediate impact on voting accessibility and prioritize civic engagement within the NYU community.
To learn more, visit https://www.nyu.edu/students/student-information-and-resources/nyu-votes.html
While we believe that NYU should establish Election Day as a consistent academic holiday going forward, we hope that curricular tie-ins for this November 3rd can create an important culture around civic responsibility. In this vein, we stand with NYU Law School’s decision to make Election Day a holiday, as well as the work of GenVote@NYU and its partners, including the February 2020 resolution by the Student Government Assembly.
NYU has had difficulty with voter turnout in the past. To quote the GenVote@NYU petition, “According to a 2016 Tufts University report, New York University's voter turnout rate lags behind the institutional average by 2.6% and behind all private research institutions by 5.3%.” Considering that NYU is one of the largest private universities in the country, it has a distinctive opportunity to model civic engagement in academe—especially at a moment when voting is so critical to the maintenance of American democracy.
Our hope is to amplify the work already being done by university groups to secure Election Day as an academic holiday. Since we’re already in the academic year, making November 3rd an ongoing holiday is impossible at the moment, but we want to open conversation towards more fundamental change. Larger changes are necessary, but this proposal is doable, attainable, and with important implications.
We want to remove as many roadblocks as possible: students should not be forced to choose between attending class and exercising their right to vote. This action would have an immediate impact on voting accessibility and prioritize civic engagement within the NYU community.
To learn more, visit https://www.nyu.edu/students/student-information-and-resources/nyu-votes.html