St. Joe’s mission statement promotes a “lifelong commitment … to pursuing social justice.” To honor this objective, St. Joe’s curriculum has supported numerous courses, such as Economics of Poverty & Income Distribution, Religion & Race in Philadelphia and Inequality in American Society. Moreover, it is no secret St. Joe’s encourages civic engagement of all forms with an active SJU College Republicans club and a newly-relaunched SJU College Democrats club. The university is also home to advocacy and philanthropic groups, including SJU for Refugees & Migrants, HawkHUB and Hawks for Just Employment.
Nearly everything about our campus culture would suggest election day participation would rank high among the university’s priorities. However, even with groups on campus canvassing student voters, St. Joe’s has erroneously decided logging on to Canvas is more important. The university should reconsider giving the day off to vote, especially since the nation lacks voter engagement from college students and young adults.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, voter turnout in presidential elections for people ages 18 to 24 years old has stayed below the national average since 1964. The outlier was 2020, in which voter turnout in college students was comparable with the rest of the public, according to a 2021 Tufts Now article.
Despite this evidence showing a surge in college voter participation, St. Joe’s leaves its student body on its own to squeeze in a drive home between classes or find time to apply for, receive and send in a mail-in ballot. Some people may think an entire day off for voting is unnecessary, but the risk of a mail-in ballot being rejected or not being delivered to one’s residence or the county election office remains a valid concern. In 2020, Pennsylvania rejected approximately 21,800 mail-in ballots and multiple municipalities felt forced to erect drop boxes in an attempt to receive votes before the deadline.
St. Joe’s students will have to count on election officials to fine-tune these processes, since many will be stuck on Canvas. However, it’s not too late for the university, or professors, to announce an asynchronous day, if not cancel class.
