City College student leadership hosted a virtual “Get Out the Vote” event, Tuesday, April 21, in hopes of raising awareness of the school-wide election April 21–22. The event, which was hosted over Zoom, included speakers from the Student Associated Council, as well as intervals of spoken word entertainment. 

Deborah Knowles, Student Leadership & Development Advisor at City College, noted the historic nature of the event. 

“Today we are making a little bit of history,” Knowles said. “We’ve done online elections before, but never has the whole campaign process been completely online.” 

This event was one of several strategies that student leadership was compelled to use in order to encourage greater voter participation, according to Knowles. While the event was already in the making before City College suspended all on-campus activities in March, the event was switched to an online format in hopes of keeping momentums. 

“With only in the 200s voting in each student election, less than 1% of the students, we are striving to get more students to vote. Because the college is all online now, we needed an online event, to reach more students,” Knowles said. 

In between each speaker’s turn, there were intervals of music. The two performers, who go by M’ster Lewis, and Aurellius TheSaint, respectively, were onboard since before the event was set to be online. 

“I agreed to do it online because I still wanted to be able to get our message out of rebuilding the culture, and lyrics matter, and why it’s important to be heard,” said Lewis. 

“Rebuilding the culture” was one of the many catchphrases repeated by the artists before and after each song, including a variety of messages about the importance of family, faith and conscientious dieting, as well as voting. 

“They were selected because they understood the importance of having a voice, and speaking up, and using your vote,” said Knowles. 

After the first set of music, Student Senate President Sabrina Edward gave her State of the Union address. 

“I am here today to present an address, highlighting the many accomplishments the Student Senate has made this academic year,” Edward said. “I am truly amazed at all a group can accomplish in one year.”

Edward pointed to as increasing the overall amount of funding a club can attain from $400 to $2,800, or an event called “Coffee with a Cop,” which sought to make campus police more available to students, or the vote which gave approval to a group of students who wanted to create a mural in honor of the deaf community on campus. 

Edward then gave credit to student leadership at City College for being the first Student Senate in the district to propose changes to their constitution since its ratification in 2011. However, voter turnout could potentially have an effect on nullifying this progress, according to Knowles. 

“In order to make the amendments valid, it will require 222 votes minimum. There is a real concern that campus closure will cause too low a turnout to approve the amendments, which have been a huge part of the work of the Student Associated Council this academic year,” she said. 

The event began to wrap up after several more musical performances, a step-by-step walkthrough of how to vote through EServices, and one last guest speaker. Irina Marsant, a student personnel assistant from the Cultural Awareness Center on campus, gave her final plea to viewers on the importance of voting, all while superimposed over a virtual background depicting a panther mascot sunbathing on a tree. 

“When you’re voting in your state and local elections, make sure that you review your candidate guides, so you can select the candidate that will best serve your need,” she said. Marsant also encouraged students to “keep checking the calendar” for other virtual student leadership events. 

Knowles added, “Even though the campus is closed, we are making every effort to keep our students engaged and informed, so please check things out and get involved as best you can, and we’ll help you every step of the way.”