Stony Brook University

09/20/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 09/20/2024 10:31

Election Season Efforts at SBU Serve a New Generation of Voters

PEPCC hosted a campus National Voter Registration Day Drive on September 18, aimed at getting people registered to vote. Photos by John Griffin.

Stony Brook's PEPCC Committee is creating outreach across campus

In a far-reaching effort to highlight the different ways students can participate in the upcoming election, Stony Brook's Presidential Election Planning and Coordination Committee (PEPCC) is offering several resources and engagement opportunities on campus.

While the Center for Civic Justice (CCJ) is largely responsible for co-curricular civic engagement programming, PEPCC was originally introduced in 2020 to bring together partners outside of Student Affairs, including faculty, staff, students, undergraduate student government, and graduate student government. Since then, PEPCC has enhanced existing efforts and created new education and outreach outlets across campus, fostering an energy around democratic engagement and civic learning, with an emphasis on presidential election cycles.

"I think this is an unprecedented election in a lot of ways, and also for many of our students, their first time ever voting," said Ashley Liegi, assistant director for the Center for Civic Justice and co-chair of PEPCC. "Some of our students are a little bit nervous or anxious to vote for the first time, so it's our goal to make the process as approachable as possible."

Liegi shares chair duties with Emily Snyder, director of Student Community Development. Together they lead a 30-member team representing the entire university. "PEPCC's composition was carefully curated in order to support the execution of an ambitious strategic plan for the 2024 election season," said Liegi.

"The Presidential Election Planning and Coordination Committee has contributed to the development of high-quality, high-impact educational and social experiences to help us meet the needs of our diverse and dynamic campus community," added Snyder.

PEPCC kicked off its slate of events September 10 with a watch party for the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, attended by more than 240 students. It was co-hosted by the College Democrats and the College Republicans, as well as the Political Science Society, and BridgeUSA's Stony Brook chapter.

"Our political student organizations are really excited to get involved and are helpful in cross-promoting non-partisan and intentionally bipartisan programming," said Liegi. "This event was a great way to kick off the election season. All of our students were really engaged. We had members from both political parties present, and a lot of collaborative work went into it."

Liegi added both party organizations are willing to work together to get students engaged, registered and voting. "It's been a pleasure to work with the presidents of both organizations to really get the message out that we ultimately want our students to be active in the election season regardless of what their political views are."

"Our priority is to make sure our students are well informed as they prepare to voice their vote across the entirety of their ballot," said Snyder. "Involving campus partners has been integral to this effort. The colleagues and students involved with PEPCC have contributed valuable multidisciplinary perspectives, as well as a comprehensive understanding of who our students are and what will resonate with them as they participate in this important civic milestone."

More than 240 students attended the September 10 watch party for the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

PEPCC hosted a campus National Voter Registration Day Drive on September 18, aimed at getting people registered to vote. Attendees had the opportunity to register to vote, check or confirm if their voter registration is active and up to date, apply for an absentee ballot to vote, and learn about important deadlines for voter registration, including how to vote early.

"I registered to vote about two years ago and I received an email a little bit after that saying there was a mistake I needed to correct," said Evangeline Tsevis, a junior from Queens majoring in psychology and linguistics. "But I felt a little intimidated to go to the CCJ office. I heard about this event, and it was super easy to come and just go up to the table. Everybody was really nice and helpful and I just filled out the form again."

PEPCC has also created a Presidential Election Guidebook website, which serves as a central hub for all election information, serving students, staff, and faculty, with a variety of resources and information.

The COVID pandemic curtailed the group's initial efforts. "A lot of the resources that we're providing this year in person were offered in either a hybrid format or in a virtual format, so the engagement was a little bit less," said Liegi.

Upcoming PEPCC Events

The Center for Civic Justice is open Monday-Friday from 9 am to 5 pm to assist with voter registration, absentee ballot requests, and more. Upcoming opportunities to register to vote include:

This year, PEPCC's efforts have shown immediate dividends; Liegi said more than 1,000 new voter registration forms were collected just from transferring commuter students during orientation in August.

"Stony Brook just had one of its largest incoming classes, so we've seen a lot more attendance at events from students," said Liegi. "I think we're seeing the ripple effect of that, there's been a lot more in-person engagement and many more people are likely going to vote in person compared to 2020 which had a high number of voters mailing in ballots."

Liegi did clinical social work in grad school, working in a substance abuse rehabilitation center for women, where she began to encounter victims of larger systemic issues that were not being addressed. "That was the light bulb moment for me where I was getting frustrated with seeing how these policies were impacting my clients," she said. "What motivated me was the potential to figure out what was happening at the macro level, identifying the policies impacting larger communities and advocating for real change. So I started volunteering on political campaigns as a way to get more involved, which led to professional work in the field."

Liegi said she enjoys seeing students become more engaged and create positive change. "At the Center for Civic Justice, we try to make that connection for each individual student, because everyone's going to vote for a different reason, everyone's going to vote for a different candidate, everyone's going to have a different motivation that makes them show up in November. Finding what that reason is for each student has been the most successful way to get across how important it is to participate and not sit this election out."

"This work doesn't happen in a vacuum, so having a team of faculty, staff and students who are invested in the core facets of these efforts - voter registration, education and mobilization - is imperative to our success," added Snyder. "Ultimately, the resources that have been developed are intended to serve our diverse campus community, from first time voters to seasoned faculty. The results of these elections will impact all of us. In the end, we strive to be good stewards of civic education and embrace the potential we have to build lifelong voters in our democracy."