As Election Day 2020 fast approaches, institutional leaders, faculty, staff, and student coalitions know that this is an election like none other in recent history. Students face both technical (where, when, and how to vote, confusing and changing rules, extreme inconvenience, voter suppression) and motivational (disillusionment with the system, lack of social cohesion, physical distancing, misinformation) barriers that call for immediate and campus-wide attention.  In this interactive session, participants will work in small groups on distinct challenges to create a vision of success and brainstorm ways to achieve that success. Participants will also hear from researchers examining this election season in the context of the pandemic and robust activism about ways to rise to this critical moment in U.S. history. Active participation via breakout discussion is expected of any registrants, so please join in person. This session will be facilitated by Duy Trinh and Nancy Thomas at Tufts University/Tisch College’s Institute for Democracy & Higher Education, the applied research center that sends you your NSLVE reports and Election Imperatives 2.0 and 2020, research-driven recommendations for strengthening student political learning, discourse, equity, and participation in democracy. 

For students and communities of color, voting has been used as one important aspect of building power in the United States. Initiatives across the country, who focus on civic engagement in communities of color, have been successful at increasing voter participation and disrupting barriers to political engagement. Our three panelists represent organizations that activate the collective voices of students of color to mobilize voter participation of their families and communities beyond the campus setting. The webinar taps the national expertise of JoAnne Fields is the Government & Public Relations Director
for Asian Pacific Islander Initiative, Pedro Lira is the Civic Engagement Director of Jolt Action, and Jaime Turner is a Democracy Fellow with the NAACP.

In an age of hyper partisanship and divisive public discourse, how can we help our students engage in the upcoming elections with a posture of inquiry, empathy, and generative conversation?  

With the low youth turnout in the last Presidential election, there’s a lot of effort being spent getting young voters to vote. But are we doing enough to help students become capable and confident voters, helping them approach their voting decisions as independent and critical thinkers? What if what shows up as “voter apathy” is lack of clarity? 

Vote by Designis an award-winning voter literacy project incubated  at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) that teaches voters how to view the job of the U.S. President through leadership qualities and qualifications  (vs. sound bites or parental and peer influence).  It blends critical thinking, civics literacy, and conversation across different perspectives to help voters create a more robust and personal understanding of what we’re voting for. It helps students identify potential biases in themselves and creates productive space for them to learn from others.  

To date, Vote by Design has been offered to more than 1,000 students across the United States, from the deep red state of Montana to the deep South of Georgia and across California. One student shared, “I thought it was hopeless, but now I feel like I have a way to productively engage.” Another said, “I used to think what my parents thought, and now I think for myself."

Join Lisa Kay Solomon, Designer in Residence at the Stanford University Hasso Plattner Institute of Design and bestselling author of Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations that Accelerate Change, as she shares the pedagogy and generative practices of the Vote by Design experience that not only helps our next gen voters become more prepared for November, but also prepares them to engage in the process for a lifetime. 

Research shows that mainstream media is losing its place as a trusted source of information, and individuals worldwide report avoiding the news because it is predominantly negative and fails to present solutions. Rather than contributing to a knowledgeable and engaged populous, the news instead often undermines civic participation and builds cynicism. Solutions journalism is an antidote to this problem; rigorous reporting on solutions to social problems. 

In this interactive workshop, participants will learn about the burgeoning field of solutions journalism, and discover how to use this type of story to inform and engage students. Participants will create a story collection on the Solution Journalism Network's SolutionsU website that they can immediately use in their personal and professional lives.