Karen McKnight Casey, Director, Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement John A. Dowell, Technology Literacy Specialist, Learning Resources Center, and Visiting Lecturer, Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures
November 2000: It is Election Day! Lines are long at the pre- cincts in the Michigan State University (MSU) residence halls and in student neighborhoods in East Lansing. One by one, each student waits to reach the front of the line. Many are turned away. Why? Are these students not registered? No, the Michigan “Motor Voter” bill is now law.
The new “Motor Voter” law required that the address on the student’s driver’s license/state identification match that on the voter registration card. This denoted a distinct change from the previous policy, which allowed a student to list his/her permanent address on the driver’s license and the campus or local college- town address for voter registration. Given the residential nature of the MSU community, the majority of students maintained both a permanent address and a temporary local address. The State of Michigan had done little publicity regarding the new law in advance of the 2000 election. Many students erroneously assumed that they could vote in East Lansing.
YouVote: MSU and East Lansing Collaborate
MSU and the City of East Lansing did not foresee scores of students being unable to vote. In response to the students’ disap- pointment and, in some cases, anger, MSU and the city formed a task force to prepare for the next election. The collaboration, known as the YouVote campaign initiative, includes the Offices of the Vice President for Student Affairs and Services and the Vice President for Governmental Affairs, the Associated Stu- dents of MSU (ASMSU-student government), Student Life, the Residence Hall Association (RHA), the Center for Service- Learning and Civic Engagement (CSLCE) and the East Lansing City Clerk.
The purpose of YouVote is to provide voter registration informa- tion, encourage and facilitate registrations, and inform on candi- dates and proposals. Toward this end, the CSLCE invited faculty, from Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures (WRA) 135: Public Life in America: the Service-Learning Writing Project (SLWP), to become involved in the design and implementation of YouVote. The participation of WRA 135 has become integral to YouVote.
WRA 135 classes are one set of offerings within the series of required first-year (freshmen) writing classes. All WRA classes incorporate research, composition and exploration of American
literature. Key components of WRA 135 are writing for public audiences and co-creating and disseminating information for the public good, consistent with MSU’s mission as the pioneer land-grant institution. Since 2002, the YouVote sections of WRA 135 have been taught by John A. Dowell. Prof. Dowell’s classes include an emphasis on First Amendment rights, social and civic responsibility and the consequences of failing to exercise those rights. The format of the class is unique: It is an on-campus, “live” class, with written work composed and submitted in web format. This instruction in Web use makes the class ideal for managing the YouVote Web site, http://youvote.msu.edu/.
Students develop the website and learn course concepts through civic engagement. They compose and produce promo- tional materials, such as fliers and public service announcements. In partnership with the Residence Hall Association, they work in voter registration drives. Under the sponsorship of the City Clerk, eligible WRA 135 students serve as poll workers. Govern- mental Affairs recruits and supervises an intern, who supports the coordination, monitoring and assessment of 135 students with YouVote partners. The intern and ASMSU work closely with 135 students to publicize YouVote via the campus newspaper, the State News. (Thirty-five articles, 11/01-11/06, http:// www.statenews.com/do_search.phtml?keywords=YouVote)
The MSU YouVote initiative connects academic service-learning and civic engagement for first-year students, co-curricular service and activism and the work of university administration and the local municipality. First-year students are given an opportunity to act on the democratic themes taught in WRA 135 and are systematically and civically linked to upper classmen, university professionals and the neighboring city.
Assessment Assessment includes: s TRACKING7EBSITEHITS s DESCRIBINGSTUDENTISSUEDYNAMICS s NOTINGhSTUDENTINVESTMENTvINTHEPROCESS s DESCRIBINGSTUDENTLEADERSHIPINGROUPWORK s NOTINGSTUDENTSTHOUGHTSASEXPRESSEDINTHEIRREFLECTIVE journaling; and s NOTINGTHEMETRICSOFHOWSTUDENTSWEREREGISTEREDTOVOTE
upon website hits and “student investment.”
Throughout the months of September, October, and Novem- ber, key weeks were most visible in terms of hits at the YouVote Web site. Table 1, below illustrates the effectiveness of the site in terms of interest generated.
Table 1: Hits generated at YouVote.msu.edu between Septem- ber 5 (the date Dr. Lee June, Vice-President for Student Affairs, sent his email) through the day after the November 7 election.
Date (in 2006) Number of Visitors 3EPTEMBER September 6 3EPTEMBER 242 September 8 3EPTEMBER 3EPTEMBER 3EPTEMBER /CTOBER October 8 /CTOBER /CTOBER /CTOBER .OVEMBER November 2 .OVEMBER November 4 .OVEMBER November 6 .OVEMBER (election day) November 8
The YouVote Web site generated most hits after the Vice- President for Student Affairs sent out an email to the student population, reminding them of YouVote.msu.edu, and just be- fore and the day of the election. Without doubt, these numbers indicate the Web site’s success. Student contributors to the site gained a great deal of insight into the mechanics of participa- tory democracy as they researched various candidates and ballot proposals. The class divided into groups to describe why one would or would not support a given candidate or proposal. Ad- ditionally, students were required to take informal surveys among their friends – voters and non-voters – and determine what might increase their likelihood to vote in future elections. In so doing, students found a range of responses, from the frustrated
“ … people don’t vote for two reasons: because they think their vote doesn’t count and because of the inconvenience….”.
to the hopeful
“ It’s not so much that who I vote for must win, but more the fact that I at least tried.”
to the genuinely noble
“ We were first-time voters, we knew as U.S. citizens it was our duty and we wanted to be able to have that experience.”
to “walking the walk”:
Nearly half the class were trained and served as poll workers.
Supplemental Materials
As noted earlier, nearly all of the students’ work was produced with an online audience in mind. All their SLWP “webfolios” (online portfolios) are available along with links to their assign- ments, http://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/135/AgencyList-F06.html.
I. Contributors’ Names and Contact Information
Main contact for the submission: Karen McKnight Casey
Director, Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Michigan State University
27 Student Services Building East Lansing, MI 48824-1113 Phone: 517-353-4400
Fax: 517-353-6663 Email: [email protected] John A. Dowell
Technology Literacy Specialist, Learning Resources Center, and Visiting Lecturer, Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures Michigan State University
202 Bessey Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824-1033 Phone: 517-355-2363
Fax: 517-353-6663 Email: [email protected]
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