Over 100 professors lighten class loads for Election Day

A newly organized group on campus is working to make it as easy as possible for students to join the Election Day efforts today.

"Penn Votes and Volunteers 2004" is a coalition of 20 student organizations ranging from the Black Wharton Undergraduate Association to the InterFraternity Council. These groups have joined together under the leadership of Political Science professor John DiIulio to e-mail professors who teach classes or hold recitations or lab sessions on Tuesdays.

These professors have been asked "to kindly refrain from giving an exam, having work due or requiring mandatory class attendance on Election Day ... without otherwise making alternative arrangements such as makeup classes for student volunteers," according to the request sent out by PVV.

By the end of last week, 101 professors agreed to participate in PVV's efforts. Eight professors have opposed the efforts, mostly for logistical reasons, arguing that they were not given enough forewarning to rearrange their class schedules. Most professors received the e-mail only five days ago.

Psychology professor Sharon Thompson-Schill was one of the professors to receive an e-mail request from PVV. Yet despite the group's efforts, her class is having a cognitive neuroscience midterm today.

"After speaking to students in my course, it was clear that moving the exam date with such short notice would inconvenience more students than it would help," Thompson-Schill said. "Instead of changing the date, I have asked students who face a conflict to speak to me about accommodations."

Political Science professor Brendan O'Leary has also joined the effort.

In an e-mail to his class, he said that "there will be no exam, no work due, and that mandatory class will not be upheld by me on" Election Day.

The efforts of PVV began last January, "when College Democrats and Republicans decided to take action after noticing how many of their most committed volunteers could not volunteer on Election Day 2002," said College junior Brian Rosenwald, the coordinator of PVV.

The members of each of these groups also joined with the Fox Leadership Program to find a solution to not only increase voter turnout in this election, but also enable students to have the opportunity to volunteer at polls without being penalized by their professors.

DiIulio suggested to Fox Leadership members a threefold answer to this problem.

First, students "should reach out in a bipartisan manner to other students and student leadership organizations on campus [to form] potential working partnerships," DiIulio said in a statement.

Second, DiIulio continued, students should pick an initiative to "help ensure Penn students register to vote and actually turn out on Election Day."

Third, he said, "they should build on the relationships" so that they will be able to continue to focus on civic engagement after Election Day.

Following these pieces of advice, PVV tried several different steps before finally e-mailing professors last week.

"We proposed first requiring, and then strongly suggesting, that faculty treat Election Day in the same way they treat religious holidays. However, the provost and deans felt it would be inappropriate," Rosenwald said.

Then, Rosenwald explained, PVV tried to work with faculty this past summer "to no avail." The e-mail effort was thus a last resort in promoting Election Day activities.

Rosenwald said, however, that "students are not asking for some sort of 'get out of class for free' card. They are willing to do the extra work required to catch up in class."

PVV brings up an even larger issue of whether or not to make Election Day a national holiday, as it is in other countries, or to move the day to a weekend when more people are likely to be free of their class or work obligations.

Thompson-Schill added that "students and professors are just two examples of groups of people who would greatly benefit from a national decision to ... move Election Day to a weekend. Election Day does not have to be a Tuesday."

While this issue is still up for debate, PVV is making bold strides in improving Election Day voter turnout, according to DiIulio.

"I think youth turnout will be up nationally on Election Day, but I think Penn has a good chance of exceeding the national average increase," he said. "If that happens, our diverse cadres of student leaders will deserve not only an A for civic effort, but an A-plus for civic results."

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