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CHEYNEY STUDENTS GETTING OUT THE VOTE ON CAMPUS

 

American citizens have already begun casting their votes in the presidential election. As the first HBCU, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania has always valued political and social engagement. Voting is one of the pillars of civic engagement, and Cheyney officials have been working to build enthusiasm about voting and get the student body registered.

“Many of our students will be voting for the first time,” said Irma I. Aguirre, executive director of student affairs. “We wanted to make registration easy, but more importantly to share with them how important it is to exercise their rights.”

Students can cast their ballots in Delaware County’s Thornbury Township building, which is walkable from campus. Cheyney held four voter registration events during the fall semester that resulted in more than 100 students registering to vote for the first time.

The most recent event was held on October 14 and was held in conjunction with the “Shield the Vote” initiative, which is a non-partisan educational and awareness campaign to encourage voters to physically protect themselves at the polls by wearing a face shield along with their mask in the 2020 Elections. Shield the Vote and its partners, Verizon and Acushield, launched this historic campaign to distribute donated face shields around the country to help voters protect themselves as they go to the polls. The face shields were provided to students who registered to vote at the event.

“For over 18 years, I have been at the forefront of analyzing voter trends and needs,” said Shield the Vote Founder, Onida Coward Mayers. “Citizens should not have to decide between their health and exercising their constitutional right to vote.”

On October 3, Dr. Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, visited the campus and spoke with students on the significance of being involved in the political process. This event was part of the “reclaim your vote” effort to register and mobilize students to vote. The event was aimed at young African Americans who will be first-time voters. Morial’s message, Aguirre said, was succinct and to the point: voting is power. It’s the chance for their voices to be heard.

“We feel strongly that it is about motivating and educating voters on the options to vote,” Morial said in a media report. He has been quoted as saying the Black vote is the key to winning the presidency and winning elections at every other level.

These events followed multiple campus registration initiatives, starting with the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Links, Inc. “The Links is an international nonprofit corporation, established in 1946 in Philadelphia by Margaret Roselle Hawkins and Sarah Strickland Scott to respond to the needs of African Americans in the aftermath of World War II,” said Aguirre. “We’ve also collaborated with Cathy Knight of the League of Women Voters. They held a virtual registration event. Students who registered had a chance to win gift cards in a raffle.”

Cheyney President Aaron A. Walton and his wife, Dr. Gloria Walton, have been assisting students with filling out their registration forms. In the dining hall, students could register, or ask for a mail-in ballot if they were already registered.

To those students who feel their votes don’t matter, Aguirre said, “I tell them that if they don’t vote, their voices are never going to be heard. By voting, you’re becoming part of the broader social and political process.”

With the final days to register to vote ticking away and the President election approaching, Cheyney University officials held a voter registration initiative for students at the nation’s oldest historically black college or university.

Thursday’s event, one of several in the past weeks helped to register over 100 students to vote for the first time and was held outside to maintain pandemic safety precautions.

Among those assisting students was Cheyney President Aaron A. Walton and his wife, Dr. Gloria Walton.

“As the first HBCU, Cheyney has always valued political and social engagement,” said Walton. “Voting is one of the pillars of social and civic engagement. By voting, you are becoming part of the broader social and political process. Regardless of how you cast your vote, your voice will be heard.”

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris is the first graduate of a HBCU to be on a major party’s presidential ticket.

Thursday’s event was held in conjunction with the “Shield the Vote” initiative, a non-partisan educational and awareness campaign to encourage voters to physically protect themselves at the polls by wearing a face shield along with their mask in the 2020 elections.

Shield the Vote and its partners, Verizon and Acushield, also distributed donated face shields around the country to help voters protect themselves as they go to the polls. The face shields were provided to students who registered to vote at the event.

“For over 18 years, I have been at the forefront of analyzing voter trends and needs,” said Shield the Vote Founder, Onida Coward Mayers. “Citizens should not have to decide between their health and exercising their constitutional right to vote.”

Shield the Vote is distributing the donated shields to empower voters to “gear up” and go to the polls to vote. Anyone can donate face shields through www.shieldthevote.com and select if they want shields for themselves or if they prefer them to be donated. Donated shields are then shipped to organizations who agree to distribute them in their communities at non-partisan events.

“Many of our students will be voting for the first time,” said Irma I. Aguirre, executive director of student affairs. “We wanted to make registration easy, but more importantly to emphasize how important it is for them to exercise their rights.”

Cheyney’s fall semester started two weeks earlier than normal and will end Nov. 20 when students will depart for winter break and remain off-campus until returning for the spring 2021 semester.

Officials said the scheduling was to mitigate the risk of a coronavirus outbreak on campus during influenza season. The school is reviewing plans for the spring semester and will communicate them to the community when they are available.

The university also reported slightly higher enrollment numbers. In 2020 there were 624 students enrolled, up from 618 the year before.

Delco Times, Pete Bannan Pbannan@21st-Centurymedia.com

https://www.delcotimes.com/news/cheyney-encourages-voter-registration-for-students/article_bb605706-0f0d-11eb-82b9-1f200b8b9a77.html

In place of a campus visit, Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) Chancellor Daniel Greenstein met via Zoom with SRU stakeholders Oct. 1 in an open forum.

Most of the time was spent with Greenstein addressing the problems the state system is facing and their plans to correct the course.

That plan, according to Greenstein, is to get insolvent universities back on their feet to where they are not a drag on the more financially stable schools, like SRU.

When Greenstein became chancellor two years ago, only Cheyney University was insolvent, today Mansfield, Edinboro and Clarion Universities are as well. PASSHE also has five other schools that are considered financially unstable.

Greenstein said he did not see the addition of three other schools to the insolvency list as anything to do with his tenure but the trajectory that the system was on when he came aboard.

If the pattern does not change, PASSHE could see Lock Haven and Shippensburg Universities become insolvent and Bloomsburg, East Stroudsburg and Millersville Universities become financially unstable.

That would leave Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities as the only financially stable schools in the state system.

How Greenstein and PASSHE plan to correct the course is a two-fold approach – stabilizing universities’ budgets and increasing faculty to student ratios to their 2010-2011 levels.

“Financial stabilization is absolutely critical,” Greenstein said. “And it’s a short-term thing, there’s a playbook. It’s not fun but it’s doable.”

Increasing faculty to student ratios will allow the universities to operate more efficiently, Greenstein said.

According to slides shown during the meeting, SRU had a ratio of 18.7 students for every faculty member compared to 20.7 students in 2010. Despite being financially sound, the state system has had to penalize universities to meet their goals by moving funding that would normally go to them to insolvent schools to keep them afloat.

SRU President William Behre added that if departments are doing well and not at the exact goal for ratios, they will work to find other ways to solve budget issues.

“I’ll be bold enough to say that if our programs are revenue positive and they’re off by a fraction of a faculty member, I’m not going to ruin a program for a fraction of faculty member,” Behre said.

Behre said SRU’s biggest issues when it comes to ratios are the increased graduate students, new majors that need tweaking and migration of students.

While graduate programs like those in healthcare have ratios far off from the goal, they are very profitable for the university, Behre said.

They may address the ratio issue by having some departments take on more first-year seminar courses, he said.

Behre added that they are not only looking at faculty ratios but staff ratios as well to cut costs where they can.

PASSHE is also counting on its restructuring that will have some universities work together in the students they serve.

Currently, PASSHE plans for Edinboro, Clarion and California of Pennsylvania Universities to create a financially stable partnership that can address the changing demographics.

Greenstein said students looking for a traditional residential college experience are declining while 50,000 Pennsylvania students choose an out-of-state online program every year. The hope is, Greenstein added, they can do for Pennsylvania students seeking undergraduate degrees what programs like Penn State University’s World Campus does for students globally, at a much lower cost.

Still, even with the cost-saving moves universities have made already, PASSHE expects to see a 12.5% decrease in enrollment along with $35 million more in loans to keep insolvent schools running.

As for funding from the state, Greenstein said it did not look promising considering that the state is running at a $3 billion deficit. According to Greenstein, PASSHE still works with lawmakers because it is a partnership, but those on the legislative side want to see the system addressing their problems.

In discussing the PASSHE response to the coronavirus pandemic, Greenstein said he was happy with the direction the system took in allowing individual universities to plan for their communities.

“From my read, things seem to be going fairly well,” Greenstein said.

Behre added that while there have been changes to the plan at SRU on a microlevel, they have been learning every day. While Behre said he is pleased that the infection rate at SRU has been low, he does not see any evidence that the current plan will change much in the future.

He added that a formal announcement about SRU’s plans going forward would be made in late October.

The chancellor was also asked what the system’s responsibilities and goals were relating to diversity and inclusion throughout SRU and PASSHE. Greenstein let Vice-Chancellor and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer Denise Pearson talk about what she has seen since taking the position back in August.

Pearson said she has spent the last two months talking with different groups of stakeholders across the system to understand their needs and thoughts on how universities are doing with making their environments as inclusive as possible. She plans to report her findings at the next Board of Governors meeting.

What she has seen so far is that people really want to work toward solutions, she said.

“I feel as though there is an appetite, and a willingness and a commitment across the system to really engage in the work and do more than just training,” Pearson said.

She added that university leaders will need to hold themselves accountable to improve student outcomes and the campus climate.

Greenstein added that the goals of a more diverse and inclusive system are critical components of the system’s goals.

“It’s time to step up,” he said.

This week we salute volleyball senior Taylor White.  Taylor is set to graduate in May with a dual major in Early Childhood Education and Special Education.  She currently holds a 3.8 GPA.

Taylor proudly wore the number 19 in her years playing for the Cheyney Wolves.  She has fond memories of playing volleyball for Cheyney and especially the team time spent on van rides to the away matches.

She will be going on to graduate school to pursue her masters in Special Education. She hopes to eventually land a job at a school working with children with learning disabilities.  She has a vision that eventually there would be something like a 13^th grade for students with learning disabilities that would focus on training these students in ways to gain access to a path to higher education.
Staff writer, Cheyney Wolves 

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — In what has been an unprecedented campaign 2020, Philadelphia has been front and center of President Donald Trump’s criticism over balloting and early voting. Community leaders continue to encourage voter registrations. Experts say Democrats must turn out the vote for Joe Biden to best Trump in Pennsylvania.

A city-wide call to action in Black and brown communities.

The National Urban League held events in multiple parts of Philadelphia on Saturday, including City Hall, urging voters to get involved.

The Black voter turnout dropped in 2016 for the first time in 20 years, according to the Pew Research Center, from 66% in 2012 to 59% in the last presidential election.

There are four ways Pennsylvania voters can participate this year: in person, by mail-in ballot or absentee ballot, or utilizing the seven satellite election offices in the city.

“I know a lot of people just choose not to vote because they think it’s not important,” Cheyney University freshman Prince Kiiru said, “but every vote really does count and I believe my vote will count as well.”

At Cheyney University in Chester County, a Reclaim Your Vote program aimed at registering and mobilizing young Black students participating in their first presidential election.

“Because we feel strongly that it is about motivating but it is also about educating voters on the options to vote,” National Urban League President Marc Morial said.

At Cheyney University in Chester county, a ‘reclaim your vote’ program aimed at registering and mobilizing young African American students participating in their first presidential election.

“Because we feel strongly that it is about motivating and educating voters on the options to vote,” National Urban League President Marc Morial said.

The message Saturday from the National Urban League is a simple one. Voting is power and you can utilize that power the moment you step inside a voting booth.

The Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia after they allege Trump poll watchers were denied access to the satellite election offices. City commissioners say they will defend the suit in court because the satellite election sites are not actual polling places.

The National Urban League sees this lawsuit as an attempt at voter suppression.

“Most of what the Trump campaign is doing is designed to frustrate and suppress voters,” Morial said. “We will resist suppression.”

By Dan Koob
October 3, 2020

https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2020/10/03/philadelphia-community-leaders-urging-residents-vote-election-2020/