Universities' civic engagement impacts on young minorities
Higher education institutions are known to many as an ever-growing source of knowledge, yet actions to promote civic engagement vary through institutions, impacting voter knowledge in minority groups.
In contrast to the 2016 election, when 30% of voter turnout resulted from 30-49-year-olds, the 2020 election saw a significant young adult turnout.
Based on data collected from the 2020 electoral vote, which demonstrated a 76% voter registrability growth from people of color, the youth of color allocated 30% registered to vote in the 2020 presidential election.
Alanna Gillis', a professor at St. Lawrence University, and Andrew J. Perrin's, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, research demonstrates two methods higher education institutions can use to influence civic engagement after college: academic curriculum and high-impact solutions.
The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement report, suspects the structure a college campus provides can influence whether an alumni votes or is politically engaged.
The University of Illinois at Springfield and the University of Chicago are two institutions that implement civic engagement courses in their curriculum.
Those students who are still allowed on campus like Jesus Villalobos, a sophomore at the University of Illinois at Springfield, explains ways civic engagement weaves into his classes and daily commutes.
"Through posters and things written on the sidewalk in chalk," said Villalobos. "I have this class called Speaker Series, which is part of a program called Engaged Citizen."
Engaged Citizenship Common Experience, a requirement for students attending the University of Illinois at Springfield, helps students view issues from multiple perspectives and broaden knowledge, bringing speakers from a broad range of backgrounds with contrasting perspectives from one another.
Many minority youth college voters in the 2020 presidential election come from public education institutions that lacked resources due to budget cuts or constant curriculum change that made civic education harder to obtain.
For example, many minority voters in Chicago’s south and west side come from schools and neighborhoods where there’s a visible civic opportunity gap in education and experience due to lack of funding.
The University of Chicago targets civic engagement amongst not only their students but community members coming from minority communities.
“We draw from all different neighborhoods to reflect the proportions and also represent the southside, westside, and northside,” said Joanie Friedman, executive director of civic leadership, about the University of Chicago’s Civic Leadership Academy.
The Civic Leadership Academy focuses on helping organization leaders from different communities to become more civically engaged and orientated.
“Civics can sometimes be narrowly defined as getting people to vote but think about civics much more broadly,” Friedman said, “Which is, ‘How do you invest in the people who are already working to make their own neighborhood a better place?’”
Fellows from this program work in nonprofit organizations and government agencies from different sectors of the city to deliver assistance to their communities or those who may need help through organizations or government positions.
“It’s more about helping those who are already leaders in their neighborhoods and giving them a network and some rigorous educational content,” Friedman said.
A societal misconception, especially in minority groups, includes one that directly links diversifying knowledge from various at a higher institution to good citizenship.
The many higher education mechanisms to increase civic knowledge and participation may only work when students have experiences in a particular curriculum and impactful experiences.
“University is not an ivory tower unto itself, but it has a responsibility and an opportunity to connect with the people of Chicago,” Friedman said. “How do we make pathways and engage people in meaningful ways that improve their lives? That’s important work.”
According to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement report, the research suggests that having political conversations surrounding political awareness and lively activities increase civic engagement amongst college students.
At Harold Washington College, civic engagement programs don’t range as widely as others due to lack of resources, but civic topics weave into everyday courses.
“When these courses bring up civics,” said Michael Franco, a sophomore at Harold Washington College, “They connect it to us personally and to our own communities.”
However, mentoring by faculty or staff members in different institutional settings may increase civic engagement after college.
The lack of resources in higher education can be indistinguishable to students due to the choice of courses and curriculum. Still, students can interpret it through the availability of programs and course material itself. Harold Washington College and the University of Chicago’s programs also implement this idea into their structure.
Programs managed by One Million Degrees, a nonprofit organization, and promoted by Harold Washington College encouraged young interns to vote and become more civically engaged by assigning counselors and holding discussions surrounding political topics.
“It is extremely helpful because a lot of us are young, and between the ages of 18-20,” said Franco about the program’s counseling and civic encouragement. “Some of us might not have even voted, so that was a great help.”
The programs and internships gave students four hours off from their workday, while Harold Washington College gave the day off on Nov. 3 due to the election.
The lack of civic engagement restrains young students from helping their communities rely on the resources provided to them to understand the reading-intensive ballot propositions.
With the lack of knowledge of the justice and political system process, many votes cast upon a blind eye.
As the American Political Science Association’s Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy said, “Citizens with low or moderate incomes speak with a whisper that is lost on the ears of inattentive government, while the advantaged roar with the clarity and consistency that policymakers readily heed.”