Martina Brady / Staff Writer
FIU was once a hotspot for registering new voters. These initiatives have now become obsolete.
COVID-19 has presented new challenges in voting and civic engagement at FIU.
Prior to the pandemic, FIU’s Center for Leadership and Service, the Miami-Dade Democratic and Republican Parties, and the Florida Student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG) would host registration drives and engagement events across campus.
“We [would go] out to campus and [do] in-person voter registration…to help people register or update their information, and also [help] people to enroll in vote-by-mail,” said Lisa Askowitz, who is the co-chair of voter registration for the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
Askowitz says these on-campus events were successful in encouraging students to vote. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Miami-Dade Democratic Party has had to adopt an alternative approach.
“The pandemic [has] made it extremely difficult to do in-person voter registration… We tried to really pivot our efforts to focus on helping people to vote safely,” Askowitz told PantherNOW.
Askowitz stresses the importance of creating a voting plan, including how, when, and where to vote.
“I would still encourage people to show up and vote [in person], but I just think that as a practical matter, there’s going to be less people on campus to use the early voting site,” She said. “Figure out how you’re going to do it and then get whatever information you need to do that correctly.”
The Miami Dade Republican Party is engaging voters both online and on-campus, according to Deputy Director Mariela Jewett. Members of the party have been registering students in MMC.
“Some of the young people from FIU have been doing that, registering to vote or talking to the rest of the students,” she said.
Jewett also believes caravans, processions of cars wielding Trump flags and beeping their horns, are building excitement for the election on campus.
“About two weeks ago [the caravan] left from FIU so of course, a lot of the young people heard about it and joined.” said Jewett.“They went down, I believe, all the way to downtown,” said Jewett.
However, Jewett worries a possible leftist influence on college campuses is swaying young voters.
“In the schools, there’s a lot of socialist people going around,” she said. “What they watch on TV etcetera, it’s not the same thing that we as adults, you know, get our hands on. So, whatever you’re listening to, it’s not the same thing, it’s not the same news.”
While the pandemic has created complications for voter registration and engagement, FIU was once recognized for its civic impact on the community.
In the 2017-2018 school year, FIU was designated as a Voter Friendly Campus for its Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Initiative. To be designated, schools must present a campus plan and measurement of participation to the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA).
FIU is currently not listed as a Voter Friendly Campus for the 2019-2020 school year.
The Voter Engagement Campus Plan 2019 revealed the university’s proposal to increase voter turnout on campus. Initiatives included Engagement Week, voter awareness campaigns, a student government engagement series, and collaborations with the Miami-Dade County Elections Office.
According to the 2019 report, challenges included a lack of funding to increase civic engagement, as well as not having an office to coordinate these initiatives. No plan was found for the 2020 school year.
FIU’s Democratic Engagement Committee (DEC) is a collaboration between the Office of Analysis and Information Management (AIM) and the Center for Leadership and Service. This committee leads the civic involvement efforts at FIU.
Patricia Lopez-Guerrero, DEC director, said she is unsure why FIU was not recognized this academic year. However, the committee is working to be reinstated for the 2021-2022 school year.
Lopez-Guerrero has led the four-part campus plan submission since January.
“[The committee] had to submit our information about what we’re doing on campus, you know what are some of our goals,” she told PantherNOW. “After, the final submission will reveal like all the work that we’ve done.”
With this, Lopez-Guerrero remains hopeful that FIU will return as a NASPA Voters Friendly Campus designation next year.
The FIU DEC is currently taking measures to keep voters engaged remotely through social media.
“We’re using social media as a tool to educate students on the upcoming deadlines… The next deadline is Oct. 5, for the last day to register to vote,” Lopez-Guerrero says.
However, it’s unclear what benchmarks will be used to calculate the plan’s effectiveness.
Though COVID-19 has threatened voter turnout at FIU, the Florida Student Public Interest Research Groups, (PIRG) are finding new ways to register and mobilize students. Student PIRGs are student-led organizations that promote student activism and civic engagement on college campuses
Ryann Lynn is an organizer for the Florida Student PIRG voter engagement initiative at FIU. Lynn says they hope to register 13,000 students in Florida, with 1,200 of those being at FIU.
The organization held a virtual campaign kickoff the night before Voter Registration Day.
Lynn and her team have also used word of mouth as a way to encourage voting.
“We found that peer-to-peer outreach was just really effective in getting young people involved in voting,” Lynn told PantherNOW.
As part of their civic engagement strategy, Student PIRGs recruited FIU students to promote voter registration on campus. Yhosvani Cerro, a senior majoring in psychology became inspired to volunteer after seeing Lynn give a presentation on the PIRG in his Psychology of Adolescence class.
Cerro contacts clubs, organizations, and news outlets across Miami to promote voter registration.
His main concern is students’ lack of knowledge regarding voting.
“Most of our students don’t realize that it’s super easy [to vote],” said Cerro.
He hopes FIU students exercise their right to vote, despite COVID-19.
“I cannot put enough emphasis on that we’d love to see all of our student peers involved, active and happy to know what’s going on and that they have a grasp on their community, that they’re not out of the loop or undermined,” said Cerro.“All of our voices are heard.”
To learn more about voting at FIU, visit vote.fiu.edu.
About Post Author
