If you take a look at the academic calendar, you will notice that we are not off on one of
the most important events in our lifetime: Election Day 2016.
The United States voter turnout has hit a low. According to a study done by Pew Research Center, in the 2012 Presidential Election only 53.6 percent of Americans voted compared to the 84.3 percent of Americans that are registered to vote. There are 26 other countries currently ahead of us in voter turnout.
Millennials are even worse in this aspect. Only 46 percent of the eligible millennials, less than half, voted in the last presidential election in 2012.
If you take a look at our school’s mission statements it states: “Cabrini University is a Catholic institution of higher education dedicated to academic excellence, leadership development, and a commitment to social justice. Cabrini welcomes learners of all faiths, cultures, and backgrounds and prepares them to become engaged citizens of the world.”
As students at Cabrini, we have the privilege to take ECG courses (Engagement in the Common Good). Our ECG courses educate students to bring about systemic change for the common good, but when it comes time to put the mission statement into practice on Election Day, the University backs off and says you are on your own.
How are we supposed to be engaged citizens if we have class on the most important day of the year? Many students are so involved on campus that they do not have time to go drive to their counties between courses, work and extracurriculars in order to go home and vote.
The upcoming race is going to be one of the most important elections of our lifetime. For many of us this is the first time we are allowed to vote. Also, the policies set by this president will determine the environment of the workforce we enter after graduation.
Going to the polls is a great experience, especially for college students. There is something to be said for proudly wearing the “I Voted” sticker across your chest, and we cannot wait for that to finally be us. This is the opportunity where we can make history and that one day we can tell our kids and grandkids we had the chance to vote in the 2016 presidential election.
The next president will have the ability to decide how all of these issues that our school is so focused on are handled over the next four years and possibly longer.
They will be able to determine how we as students will pay off our student loans and the amount of jobs that will be available after we graduate.
Cabrini University is a school that is deeply rooted and founded in the principles of social justice. Throughout our four years we are given an education of the heart as well taught to be educated citizens in our world.
But Cabrini still has class on Nov. 8, 2016. As students we have been learning constantly about issues such as climate change, the refugee crisis, the wealth gap, women’s rights and racial inequality.
We have been forming opinions on these matters as well as well as taking action through lobbying, writing articles and sometimes even organizing protests and rallies.
The outcome of this election has the power to change all of our lives, as we know.
How many times have we been told how important it is to vote?
How many times have our professors urged and sometimes even begged their students to stand up and fight for the America that we want to live in, to fight for the America that our children will live in? And to fight for the country that we want to be?
As a nation we do not take the election as seriously as we should. We treat this day as any other normal day of the week, just with one other thing to add to our to-do list. Everyone still goes to a full day of work and a full day school. Most businesses and schools do not even close early. What happens to the people who have a long commute and do not get home in time to vote before 7 p.m. when the polls close?
So ask yourself, if our teachers are all encouraging their students to go out and vote then why do we not have off from school on Nov. 8, 2016?
why not swap out another holiday with election day…good fri/day after txsgving/the day semester break is to start etc etc