Observations on Civic Engagement Among Young People
The ravages of social and environmental injustice, pandemics, and racial strife (to name but a few global issues) would lead many of the earth’s inhabitants to agree that change needs to happen. The world will soon pass from the hands of the baby boomers to the millennials and Gen Z, and from the hands of the educators to those we are educating. The protests against the Vietnam War brought us a lowered voting age, from 21 to 18. With help from the slogan “Old enough to fight, old enough to vote,” the 26th Amendment was passed in 1971.
But will younger generations be prepared to take the reins and address the global situation that many of us deplore, to improve our world for its inhabitants? The 18 to 24-year-old demographic has the lowest rates of civic engagement in the United States. The 2018 midterm election saw an increase in young voter participation, but of the nearly 27,000,000 U.S. citizens between the ages of 18 and 24, only 49% were registered to vote and a mere 32% actually voted. This is the group that needs to decide its own future.
Vision and Opportunity
In my Missouri State University students, I saw a ray of hope. I saw students who were concerned, frustrated, angry, and scared. Some of them wanted to do something. In 2019 I introduced a new 500-level special topics course called Action Anthropology, following the early founders of cultural anthropology, who used anthropological perspectives and techniques in their work to address social justice issues.
Keeping a close eye on the enrollment numbers during registration, I waited to see if enrollment reached the bare minimum of eight students required for the course to run. Seventeen motivated students signed up. As part of the class, each chose and took action on a social or environmental justice issue. Several participated in Missouri Jobs with Justice Transformative Conversations, going door-to-door for deep conversations with community members to find common ground and explore the sources of racism that underly many societal ills. Projects addressed diverse issues. For example, one student explored the retention rates of Black students at Missouri State, a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), to contribute to the knowledge base needed for greater retention of these students. Another student contributed mapping data to an app that uses satellite imagery to help doctors locate medically vulnerable populations in remote areas. Yet another student documented food insecurity on our campus to raise awareness of this problem and set up a food drive to contribute food to the Bear Pantry. The common thread was to take action that made a difference. The students showcased their work at the end of the term using trifold displays and discussions with visitors from the university community and the public. The event included a voter registration drive, assisted by the League of Women Voters.
The same semester, I taught the Freshman Foundations class for the first time. My objective was to take the pulse of our incoming freshmen. What do they care about? Do they care? Where do they get the information they need to assess and critically evaluate the political candidates who will affect their lives and help decide their futures? Do they realize that elected officials influence their lives? I incorporated a social justice/civic engagement theme to the course and called on members of the League of Women Voters to conduct a voting simulation activity in class. This demonstrated how the relatively small proportion of people who vote in the US make important decisions for all citizens.
“It is easy to speculate from the ivory tower; to hold the reins is an entirely different task. We, as students, are prone to passive observation, such that some of us may take it as acceptable to zone out in class so long as we promise ourselves to study harder later, but “later” rarely comes. Action Anthropology, more than anything, showed me the importance of action. It is nearly impossible to know, at the outset, what the final result of a project will look like. Yet, at the outset is where you must act. Decisions have to be made about goals, methods to achieve them, contingency plans, and more, all without the hindsight we get from the end of a project. There will be mistakes. Yet, you will only know what the optimal decisions would have been after the mistakes have been made, when there is no going back. Fortune favors the bold, indeed. In our quest to make the world a better place we must be focused, vigilant, certain, and we must act. When we mess up, we ought to take responsibility and correct course. But we ought never refrain from charting the course to begin with. The path of the person who acts is not always easy, but it is always worth it.”
– Josh Slocum, Junior, Anthropology
“Dr. Walker-Pacheco’s Action Anthropology class was a catalyst for our goals and objectives in creating Paws to the Polls. Through this class, students were able to use anthropological methods and techniques to bring into fruition action and change within their community. Students chose a project that reflected their individual passions and presented their findings at the end of the course. Our class discussions provided us the ability to hear and learn different perspectives, and we were encouraged to have input in the topics for conversation and learning, which further drove the impact of the course. We learned about grassroots movements and the impact they have on communities; we learned how they start from the ground, and by listening and learning from community members about their struggles, they creatively come up with ways to enact change. Dr. Walker-Pacheco invited speakers from the Springfield community who are making a difference, focusing on such themes as racism in our community and how the Transformative Conversations project can shed light on possible solutions, LGBTQ issues and how to support members of this community, and the horrible plight of Latin American children held in detention facilities in this country. We learned firsthand from the speakers about how they have positively impacted their communities, which helped us formulate our own action-oriented projects. I reflected on these speakers and what I took from the class and have put these thoughts together with my energy in contributing to the making of the Paws to the Polls initiative.”
– Elizabeth Wertz, Senior, Sociology
Listening to Gen Z – Barriers to Voting
Are our young citizens apathetic? Certainly not the several dozen students that I spoke with. When I asked what kept people their age from voting, my students had a lot to say. Some feel intimidated by the process of voter registration and voting. Anxiety is rampant in this age group and unfamiliarity is a barrier. Others don’t feel confident about voting because they are unfamiliar with the candidates and issues, or they don’t know where to find unbiased information. Some are disillusioned with the process or feel disengaged from the community and/or the larger world. Because political conversations were stifled in high school, they said, they’re not used to frank discussions in which they can potentially learn alternative viewpoints. One student summed it up as, “Well yeah, we care, but we’re busy and there’s so much information out there, most of it coming from Facebook. I know that’s not a great source of information, but we don’t know what’s valid and what’s bullshit.”
I listened not only to their cited reasons for the lack of engagement of young people in the democratic process, but more importantly, to their ideas for driving change in our society and our world. I knew that starting some sort of initiative was my goal, but I knew that it had to be a student-driven effort, with a peer-to-peer emphasis. In all four of my classes in the fall of 2019, I pitched a draft of a proposal about such an initiative, provisionally called “Bears Vote.” In each class, I left with twice as many ideas as I’d shown up with.
“I think that it’s a sad irony that our generation has so much to say but no one to vouch for our cries – to see life as we experience it and care enough to make a change in the world we experience firsthand. We need people in office who are humble enough to learn from younger generations and can altruistically seek the best for those whom they represent.”
– Kristen Brown, Senior, Anthropology
“Oftentimes Gen Z can feel intimidated or bullied into not expressing their views and beliefs because they may be different from the beliefs of other, older generations in their families and communities. It is important to represent all ideas and mindsets of each distinct generation. Oftentimes, the ideas and views of younger generations is thrown out as being invalid or undereducated. It is also intimidating for college students to feel confident in the voting process because the voting process is not readily taught in many curriculums. This is information that people are magically expected to have, and unfortunately the voting process can be complicated and initially very intimidating. That is why voting initiatives like Paws to the Polls are so important in helping to educate about the voting process.”
– Veronica Jacobs, Senior, Anthropology
Passionate Participants and Building from the Ground Up
The student response to my invitation to be involved in a voter-related campus initiative was immediate and positive. A core group of dedicated students quickly formed, aware of the importance of voting not only as a path to change but as a way to express themselves and feel a part of their community and their world. Most had completed Action Anthropology the previous semester and were ready to take what they’d learned about grassroots movements and apply it to the real world. Our first meeting, on February 26, 2020, had 14 participants, and lasted three and a half hours. And I hadn’t even locked them in or, as yet, provided food.
We kept the leadership team at a manageable level and the students insisted that we meet every week, telling me, “This is important.” Various majors were represented, most from our Sociology and Anthropology department. We brainstormed, dreamed about what we would do if we had funding, and formulated our goals and objectives. Together, we decided to be a campus initiative rather than register as a student organization. Our goals were unlike the typical goals of a club and such groups had guidelines, paperwork, and reporting requirements that were time-consuming, slowing down our explosion of activity and foundation-building.
“Paws to the Polls not only helps me to utilize the powerful platform that is voting but also serves as a means to help my peers utilize it as well. When I vote, the feeling I have can only be described as empowerment. I feel connected to those who risked their lives in the Civil Rights Movement and to my local community. I want to have a say in what happens to my neighbors, my family, friends, and myself. When I vote, I think of how it affects those I know and those I don’t. While I recognize that this process of civic engagement encompasses more than is tangible to me, I also recognize the importance of my voice and that of others. Down through the years, I’ve seen numerous images and documentaries about the groundwork Blacks have made in order to vote. As a young Black woman, I find it extremely important to honor the lives and strides made by the people before me by using my right to vote. By voting, I know that I’m ensuring that their efforts aren’t put to waste.”
– Kristen Brown, Senior, Anthropology
“I was fortunate to be involved from the moment Paws to the Polls began, early in the Spring semester of 2020. I was also fortunate in that my parents took me with them to the polls when they voted, allowing me to bear witness to the democratic process of voting from an early age. Being very familiar with the Missouri State campus, I knew there was a large gap between our public affairs mission and students actually being involved in our community through civic engagement. I knew early on that the things I am passionate about are often decided at the polls, and I insist on making my own, informed, decisions at the polls rather than allowing someone else to make critical decisions for me.”
– Emily Reichgeld, Anthropology BA, Current MA Student, Master of Public Health Program
Establishing Goals
At the root of the Paws to the Polls initiative is the push for a culture change at Missouri State University, fostering a culture in which all students not only vote, but do so in an evidence-based manner. Our main objectives are to facilitate student understanding of how voting relates to their lives, familiarize them with the voting process, and ensure that they have access to unbiased sources of political information. Using a multi-faceted approach, we depend upon leadership team members’ motivation and innovative ideas for energizing and engaging their peers. Our plans included curriculum development, film-making, and diverse forms of outreach. Aware of the need to collaborate with other campus groups, administrative offices, and community organizations, , we all contributed names of individuals and organizations to reach out to.
“Being part of this voter education and advocacy group on campus is immensely important to me. I believe that growing one’s awareness of what can be done, and how, increases not only civic engagement but a sense of community that encourages people to grow closer. There is strength in numbers, but there is also more empathy found in groups of people who have come to understand things in a similar way. If every college student in the United States that was eligible to vote sought information from various sources, asked themselves hard questions about where their beliefs come from, had conversations with people who disagreed with them, and exercised their right to vote – the entire country would experience a significant change for the better. I want to be a part of a movement that seeks to bridge the gap between what we want to see in our world and what we can do to bring that change, and I believe that all begins with education.”
– Jacqueline Batista-Martinez, Senior, Anthropology
“Paws to the Polls is deeply centered on promoting inclusivity to help make becoming a voter an easier and more important process for young voters. Voting, especially as a student at Missouri State University with its public affairs mission, should be something to be proud of. But to make that happen for the majority of students, we must first help to change the culture around voting and make it our own.”
– Veronica Jacobs, Senior, Anthropology
Forging Ahead During a Pandemic
Three meetings in, fueled by pizza and sodas and typically lasting well over two hours, spring break arrived. It brought a new level of uncertainty and worry into our lives: COVID-19. After a month-long hiatus that forced us to switch our educational experience to alternate modes and bombarded our newsfeeds with frightening and depressing news, we reconvened.
We now met via Zoom, meeting once per week and sometimes more while working on specific aspects of the initiative. Our self-provided foods replaced the pizza, and we gazed at our laptops instead of into each other’s faces. Meetings now included discussions of hand sanitizer, masks, and COVID-19 infection and death rates. We adjusted relatively quickly to the new mode but knew that the need for flexibility would be a fixture in our lives, maybe forever. All told, hundreds of person-hours have been logged Zoom-ing, e-mailing, texting, and even good old-fashioned phone calls for Paws to the Polls. Having survived the first month after our lives ground to a halt in March, we continued, more determined than ever to make a difference.
“The Paws to the Polls initiative is propelled by passion. Through the pandemic, we found that being able to discuss things, being able to plan for the future, and being able to feel good about the baby steps of change we would be initiating in our community, was well worth the many hours of work. In that way, we were generating the very idea of inclusivity through our voices that we are trying so hard to create at our Missouri State University community. During the pandemic, it was difficult to stay focused and optimistic at times. The pandemic is a new phenomenon that no one has all the answers to, making life more stressful and worrisome. At times I felt disconnected from my normal life due to the virus, but being able to continue creating ideas to build Paws to the Polls gave me an outlet to feel like I was still contributing to my community and making a change in the world. Participating with a team of passionate individuals, each with their own wisdoms and talents really makes it such a strong initiative. Even through the pandemic, we were able to stay connected and stay strong which helped me to feel like no matter how weird or bad things seem right now, they will be better tomorrow.”
– Veronica Jacobs, Senior, Anthropology
Diverse Perspectives – What Does Our Leadership Team Look Like?
“Cada cabeza es un mundo.” Translated from the Spanish, the proverb asserts that every mind is a world unto itself. We each have our own unique perspective. An additional layer of perspective has been forced upon people of color in our society and many others around the world. It is especially vital that we hear from these individuals, as their voices have often been stifled, both in the past and today. We are fortunate that in its early incarnation, Paws to the Polls was comprised of a diverse group, enriching not only our internal dynamic but also our outreach potential, which is especially important at a PWI such as Missouri State University. As the pandemic hit, we were forced to physically disperse. We have not yet regained the level of diversity of the original group and the broad perspectives it encompassed. However, the fall term is now here and the opportunity to interact with many students and gain new participants will be upon us. We hope to soon regain a more representative, diverse set of voices, enhancing our outreach and educational efforts.
Collaboration-Building
Paws to the Polls’ collaborations have blossomed, both on campus and in the community. On-campus, we are fortunate to build on and connect to an existing foundation of voter support resources offered through the university’s Public Affairs Support Office. This office established MSU as part of the American Democracy Project, which aims to help prepare the next generation of informed, engaged citizens. Public Affairs Support also highlights civic engagement and serves as a fount of voter information and registration resources, and immediately began to provide logistical support to help us meet our shared goals and showcase our initiative. We are partnering with this office, as well as with the Student Activities Council and the Student Government Association on voter-related activities and for resource-sharing.
A major collaborative outcome within the university involves partnering with the MSU First-Year Programs Office to include a voter education curriculum for MSU freshmen. Through intensive work in the summer of 2020, and with contributions from Paws to the Polls student participants, I created the Path to the Polls voter education modules for use in Freshman Foundations classes, starting in the fall of 2020. MSU’s Office of Assessment is also supporting this initiative by helping us to develop tools to assess the efficacy of the voter education modules.
In the community at large, we have an established relationship with the local chapter of the League of Women Voters, which provides voter education information and logistical support. Some Paws to the Polls students are League members, and I serve on the League board of directors. The Greene County Clerk’s voter participation goals mesh with ours and we are collaborating with them. Their effort in setting up voting machines for us to film the voting process is a prime example of their support.
The Many Arms of Paws to the Polls
To achieve our goals, we are taking a multi-faceted approach: providing voter education curriculum to the Freshman Foundations classes, peer-to-peer outreach consisting of events and a strong social media presence, and producing films about our initiative as well as the voting process and voting information.
Voter Education Curriculum: Path to the Polls Modules
Central to the Paws to the Polls initiative is the contribution of a voting education curriculum, the Path to the Polls Voter Education Modules. The pedagogical modes are varied and include such visual presentations as PowerPoints, online informational videos, and short films that we produce ourselves. Resources are provided for nonpartisan information on candidates and ballot issues and reflective exercises and worksheets with follow-up questions assess student learning. The five interactive modules offer student and instructor resources on multiple aspects of voting and voter education and foster the development of critical thinking skills. Each of the five modules has a particular topic:
1) The relevance of voting to students’ lives; 2) specific instructions on the process of registering to vote – they register as part of the activity; 3) instructions on actually casting a vote (includes our film on walking them through the process); 4) learning about bias and misinformation (including their own) and identifying unbiased sources of information; and, 5) locating students’ own voting districts, polling places, and representatives at various levels of government, determining representatives’ positions on issues, and examining of ballots.
Peer-to-Peer Outreach (Or: Don’t Trust Anyone Over 30)
Peer-to-peer interactions are a highly effective way of conveying information and influencing behavior. Due to shared experiences and perspectives, a high level of trust exists within age groups. It is our hope that a combination of peer pressure, familiarity with the voting process, and knowledge of the real-world influence of voting will result in the desired effect of higher civic engagement. Gen Z individuals are incredibly innovative. They gain more inspiration as they feed ideas off one another to produce ways to deliver information and motivate student involvement in civic engagement
Our outreach has begun. One of our partnerships quickly led to our first voter registration and information event with the Student Activities Council and we have plans to collaborate with the Public Affairs Support Office and the Student Government Association for additional events this fall. We conducted a pop-up voter registration alongside a campus march for racial justice, and we plan for additional pop-up tabling activities across campus and a “Voting Fair” as our main fall event. COVID-19 has pushed us to think even further outside the box. Our slate of activities will have a blended format, with some activities online and others in person. Additional plans are to approach MSU faculty and various campus organizations with the offer to have trained Paws to the Polls students and/or League of Women Voter members provide brief information sessions, voter registration, and voter-related classroom activities. The training is key: untrained groups or individuals on campus attempting to register voters make mistakes – ones that I’ve personally observed lead to disenfranchisement.
Thanks to the Public Affairs Support Office, our website is underway. We have an established e-mail for contact and our social media campaign will soon take off. This will encompass various platforms to familiarize students with Paws to the Polls and its objectives, provide regular updates and links to election news from nonpartisan sources, and add a touch of “cool” to voting. We are in the process of establishing our brand, with most ideas centered around the whimsy of our mascot, the MSU Boomer Bear.
After having spent several months establishing our foundation, we are preparing for the leadership team to educate their peers about civic engagement. Additionally, to provide training sessions to leaders of fraternities, sororities, other campus organizations, and Residence Advisors, who can in turn register voters and hold information sessions. We plan to establish a collaborative network of students to transmit their knowledge and enthusiasm for the democratic process.
Paws to the Polls has incredible potential. Students listen to other students. Peer-to-peer engagement is real, and Paws to the Polls understands that and uses it to motivate the Missouri State student body. I believe this initiative has the opportunity to make long and lasting effects on Missouri State by educating students on the voting process, the impacts of voting, and how to think critically about ballot issues and candidates. While it takes some time to change the culture of a university, there are students that are passionate about this and truly want to see MSU as a voting campus. I believe we can get there.”
– Emily Reichgeld, Anthropology BA, Current MA Student, Master of Public Health Program
Film production
We are recording our work on video to various ends. We have produced a film about voting, engagement and the public affairs mission of Missouri State University (see the link at the end) and a second film on how to cast a vote to familiarize new voters with the process. The latter was filmed at the Election Center, where the Greene County Clerk’s office provided us with a mock-voting setup. These videos will be used as educational materials as well as vehicles to encourage continued student engagement with Paws to the Polls for the foreseeable future. Later, we plan to produce a documentary about the process of developing this grassroots movement.
“A conversation with Dr. Walker-Pacheco a year and a half ago about wanting to create some kind of voter-related group led to her invitation to film the process of its development. It has been rewarding to watch this initiative become a reality. Film-making with this group has been unique partly due to the overwhelming degree of positivity among the members and the feeling of hope the group conveys. Working with like-minded young people who are passionate about their goals of encouraging other young people to take part in our election process is refreshing. As someone who works in media, it is also important for me to participate in an initiative that strives to find and deliver unbiased sources of information. I am using my skills in a new way in this group, and it’s wonderful to work with enthusiastic and motivated individuals, where everyone is willing to contribute in any way needed.”
– Abigail Dawson, Senior, Anthropology (BS in Electronic Media Production)
Assessing Our Impact
To gauge the effectiveness of our efforts, we will access information on college student voter participation rates via several national sources. We will primarily use the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) Reports, generated every two years, which report on the number of students who are registered to vote and those who actually vote. We will also compare MSU’s previous participation rates to those of the 2020 presidential election and compare data for college students across the nation to those at MSU. In that way, we can reassess our program every year.
The Path to the Polls Voter Education curriculum includes a pre- and post-test to assess the degree of voting knowledge and familiarity gained over the series of modules. Perceived importance of civic engagement is also measured both at the beginning and at the end of the series to gauge whether exposure to knowledge about voting-related information boosted the students’ perceptions of its importance.
The Vision Continues: Future Directions
As the only campus organization solely dedicated to voter support and increasing access to participation in the democratic process, we hope to eventually work with the Public Affairs Support Office to help serve as a clearinghouse for campus voter resources. By teaming up with the personnel from this office, we can refer voters or potential voters to the office’s physical space in the university library and its full-time staff (including a deputy registrar) to answer voting-related questions. Paws to the Polls would add the peer-to-peer dimension to their events, continue the social media campaign, and we will share with the office any resources we acquire via our funding. These voter services will be of benefit not only to students but to the entire campus community and potentially beyond.
Our support will extend to assist the League of Women Voters’ outreach efforts to area high schools. Information will be more effectively conveyed as well as received if the messengers are closer to the target age group.
The shift from an initiative to established campus organization will come with not only continued support, education, and outreach but also lead to deeper actions such as community issue-based discussion and candidate forums. We plan to encourage dialogue between those at all points across the political spectrum in the hopes of finding common goals and working towards them together.
Visit us at https://www.missouristate.edu/ADP/paws-to-the-polls.htm
Write to us at pawstothepolls@missouristate.edu
Authors
Jacqueline Batista-Martinez, Senior, Anthropology
Mara Bradford
Kristen Brown, Senior, Anthropology
Aby Dawson, Senior, Anthropology
Tina Hang, Senior, Anthropology
Devin Hyatt
Veronica Jacobs, Senior, Anthropology
Emily Reichgeld, Graduate Student, Master of Public Health
Josh Slocum, Junior, Anthropology
Elizabeth Wertz, Senior, Sociology
Suzanne Walker-Pacheco is a Professor of Anthropology at Missouri State University. Her experience as a biological anthropologist has included forensic anthropology, medical anthropology, and field primatology. She has long emphasized applying anthropological techniques and knowledge to real-world issues and emphasizes this in her teaching; her students conduct action-oriented projects that address issues of social and environmental injustice. Dr. Walker-Pacheco directs Paws to the Polls, a nonpartisan campus voter initiative, that formed to increase engagement of Missouri State University students in the democratic process. A core group of students works closely with her on this multifaceted endeavor; its strong peer-to-peer component is aimed to help drive a culture change to turn the university into a voting and voting-literate campus.
