Outreach, discussion and friendly competition marked ‘Kenyon Votes’ Week, a weeklong promotional effort to increase voter turnout on the Hill.
The week was led by the Center for the Study of American Democracy (CSAD). Established in 2007 and now located in Oden Hall, CSAD regularly organizes events with “the goal of stimulating nonpartisan civic and political discourse,” according to its website.
Every day throughout the week, CSAD student associates tabled in Peirce Dining Hall at lunch and dinner to assist students with voter registration. This has been a continued effort throughout the semester, with one or two representatives regularly tabling during lunch and dinner.
The week’s first event was a voting-themed trivia night at the Village Inn on Sept. 18, where students answered questions about Kenyon alumnus Rutherford B. Hayes (Class of 1842), deadlines for registering to vote and requesting an absentee ballot, former President Barack Obama’s Grammy Award count (two!) and more. The event was hosted by Guthrie Richardson ’25 and Isabel Connors ’25, who selected a range of democracy-related questions. “An election looms increasingly near, as does trivia. Democracy will be served on-the-line, with a cold pitcher and side of freedom fries,” an email advertising for the event read.
CSAD also hosted a talk by Professor of Sociology and Legal Studies Emeritus Ric Sheffield (see story on page 3), the former director of Kenyon’s Law and Society Program who currently teaches in the Department of Sociology, as well as the American Studies and African Diaspora Studies programs. The talk summarized and synthesized trends involving black voter disenfranchisement in Ohio.
CSAD partnered with the Collegian to create a voting-themed crossword, which was released in the Sept. 19 edition. Questions covered Supreme Court justices, annual Congress sessions, ballots and zip codes.
While “Kenyon Votes Week” has ended, CSAD is hosting additional events extending into the rest of the semester. Professor Kathleen Belew of Northwestern University will be giving a talk on political violence in the United States in Oden Auditorium this Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Jim Tull ’85, will be speaking on Friday at 4:10 p.m. in Chalmers Library room 320 on his experience providing assistance with international conflicts in the private and public sectors.