By Noelle Smith, Contributor
Global Engagement and Residence Life are partnering for YOVO, You Only Vote Once (in college). The focus is to get people engaged in politics with convicted civility while offering different unbiased events around campus.
"TSO as a whole this year, we're focusing on fighting apathy and interrupting students' lives so that they get involved with things that we think are important. Politics would be one, especially with the elections this year," said senior Anna Medearis, Global Engagement Co-President.
This week Global Engagement is putting up yellow forms in all dorms where students can sign up to request an absentee ballot, for the 65 percent of students not from Indiana and other students not from Grant County.
Towards the end of the month they will be encouraging students to fill out their ballots and send them into their respective counties.
"As an individual you should be able to make your own opinion, and college is that time in life when you are processing what you learned from your parents and being challenged by different ideas you're not familiar with," said Roger Mitchell, Global Engagement Co-President. "That whole process ought to lead to your desire to participate in the world, try to dialogue with people around you, and ultimately voting is part of that. It's not given to everybody in the world to express that, so I think that we should consider ourselves blessed that we have that option and utilize it."
While the slogan states you only vote once in college, it is important to remember that there are state and local elections that happen more frequently, Mitchell said.
The goal of YOVO is to create responsible individuals that honor God by engaging as a good citizen through voting. They seek to break down the barriers of politics and make it less intimidating.
Global Engagement hopes to create an open space that allows students to respect each other while offering their opinions.
"People should know its okay to have convictions and opinions about something, but be able to approach it in a way that you don't offend other people, that you still have civility in debate or discussion," Medearis said.
"Unity should be the focus at the end of the day," Mitchell said.
On Oct. 3, students packed the Euler atrium for the first presidential debate, which focused on the economy and healthcare.
According to Forbes.com, NBC and the Washington Post, Romney won the debate.
The Taylor publication News of the Day will offer unbiased facts about a different campaign topic every week.
There will be a panel discussion on pursuing convicted civility at 8:15 p.m. Oct. 9 in the Recital Hall.
The final debate will be streamed live in the Euler Atrium 9-10:30 p.m. Oct. 22.
