Incoming freshmen are taught early about the 5 “C’s” to encourage student involvement and civility. However, the “C” that stands for “citizenship” is not encouraged, and OU should do something to fix that. In particular, the university lacks any effort to encourage student participation in democracy.
Students at Ohio University must overcome obstacles in order to cast their ballot. A lack of knowledge of voter registration deadlines, polling locations, acceptable identification to vote, and even something as simple as knowing your dorm’s actual address can determine whether a vote is cast or not. Not to mention the fact that OU students tend to move every year, therefore students must also re-register every year if they wish to vote.
Most of these obstacles can be achieved with simple awareness campaigns about how students register and actually cast their ballot in the correct polling location. The Higher Education Amendments of 1998 state that universities are to commit a full-faith effort to distribute voter registration forms to every student.
Even though OU states on their website that voter registration forms are available in various places throughout campus (Alden, Baker, etc.) I have personally been to these locations and no voter registration forms in accordance to these amendments were anywhere to be found. I did find five blank forms under a lamp in Chubb, so I’ll give OU credit for that one.
It seems as though the only group that makes this issue a priority are the OU College Democrats, who have personally educated the Bobcat community year after year and successfully registered more than 14,000 students to vote since 2008. However, we can’t just rely on them. That’s where this letter comes into play.
My hope is that Ohio University will honor the “C” for “citizenship” and work to educate students, especially incoming freshmen who have most likely never voted before. Whether that be utilizing RAs, holding voter registration efforts, working with academic departments, or using other Ohio University resources, there must be efforts made by the university itself.
Participation in democracy is vital to our country and OU needs to live up to the true responsibilities of citizenship. I call on the administration to take an active role as leaders and good American citizens to educate all Ohio University students on voting information.
Nick Tuell is a senior studying political science and served as president of College Democrats at Ohio University.
