ASUI introduced legislation encouraging university faculty and staff to create flexible schedules and attendance policies on election days.
By adding flexibility to election-day schedules, the resolution hopes to spur greater civic engagement among the campus population during local and national elections. This resolution hopes to build from the prior push for civic engagement led by former ASUI President Nicole Skinner, who advocated for a polling location to be made available on the Moscow campus.
“Our students are some of the most educated…individuals in the state,” Sen. Owen Crowley said. “We need to allow time and flexibility for our students to vote on election days.”
According to the resolution authored by Crowley, turnout for college-aged adults remains low compared to other age groups. In Moscow, UI students account for about 7,000 members of the community.
With Latah County seeing limited civic engagement from students over the past few decades, making it easier for voting students to manage their academic schedules could bring improvements in overall voter numbers.
“The main objective of higher education is to shape students into productive members of society, and I would argue that being civically engaged is one of the prime (examples) of that,” Sen. Martha Smith said.
Royce McCandless can be reached at [email protected] or Twitter @roycemccandless