For the past four years on Election Day, Lehigh has canceled classes and encouraged the campus community to vote and engage in civic activities as part of the university’s Civic Engagement Day.
This year, with the added importance of a presidential election, campus organizations hosted events encouraging students to visit their local polling place and provided information and resources to help students vote.
The Office of Student Involvement and the Community Service Office was one organization that participated and hosted a table in Farrington Square with games, food and drinks and voting information.
The Community Service Office also offered rides to the Banana Factory, the polling location where many students vote, to make voting more accessible to those without transportation.
Alain Rousseau ’25 works in the Community Service Office and helped organize the tabling event. He said the office did promotional work before election day encouraging students to vote. They also informed students of where their polling location would be and what they would need to bring, and helped them determine what candidates best aligned with their values.
He encouraged students to practice active citizenship – being part of a community and voicing concerns within it – because when students realize their agency through elections, they are more invested in their community.
Rousseau said he appreciates students having the day off from classes because it allows them to take time to vote, especially with the long wait times at the polls in this election.
“It’s important because it’s part of helping make sure that they are able to both enshrine and exercise their constitutional right to vote,” Rousseau said.
Student Senate also had a table, located in the lobby of the Fairchild-Martindale Library, with information about polling places and a schedule of the day’s events. They hosted two speakers who informed students about the importance of voting and fostered discussion about the American political system.
Madison Danquah ’27 is Senate’s student outreach chair and helped plan the day’s events.
She said during her first year at Lehigh there were few Civic Engagement Day events, so she wanted to increase the number of events and improve student engagement.
“I’m hoping that these events would be able to help other people explore their own sense of civic engagement,” Danquah said “It’s not just voting and it’s not just politics – it’s also volunteering opportunities and other ways to help improve your local community.”
She said having the day off shows how important civic engagement is and gives students the opportunity to make changes in their community.
The two speakers she helped host were political science professors Dean Ciavano and Nandini Deo. They each spoke to students in the Business Innovation Building, Ciavano at 12:30 p.m. and Deo at 2 p.m.
Ciavano’s talk centered on democracy in America, popular perception of the governmental structure and how voters can shape the future of the country.
Deo focused on youth political engagement, and asked listeners to consider what should qualify people to vote and what changing legislation about voting could look like.
She said she appreciates Lehigh giving students a day off from classes to give them time to vote, although she believes the government should emulate the many other countries that have declared election days federal holidays.
Deo also believes work and class cancellations signal the importance of the day and celebrate taking part in elections.
She encouraged students, especially those voting for the first time, to appreciate the privilege of voting in a country whose policy has global impacts.
“The rest of the world doesn’t get to vote in American elections,” Deo said. “People have the responsibility to think about how their vote could impact the whole world.”
Students around campus also appreciated the day off, and while it gave many a chance to catch up on homework and other educational tasks, it also gave them time to vote without stressing about missing classes.
Nora Vaugn, a Ph.D. student in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department, said she spent much of the day processing lab samples because she went to the polls early in the morning.
She said voting in person was important to her and she felt this election was an especially significant one. Abortion access was one of her main concerns, as well as the protection and funding of federal environmental agencies.
“I love voting in person because I like to observe the humanity of it,” Vaughn said. “It’s a super important election and everybody should be voting.”
Other students spent much of their day waiting in record-long voting lines. Alex Babka ’28 said he spent hours waiting to fill out a ballot.
He said without having the day off, many students would be unable to wait in line to vote, and the voter turnout would be much lower.
“Now people are able to wait in line, and they’re willing to wait,” Babka said.
He said his main concerns were foreign policy and economic stability, which motivated him to vote in this election.
The deadline to return mail-in ballots was 8 p.m., the same time polling locations in Pennsylvania closed.
