Boston University Student Government passed a resolution to recommend BU administration make class attendance optional on Election Day this year, in a Zoom meeting Monday night.
Sen. Hessann Farooqi proposed during the meeting for StuGov to recommend to administration that Election Day become a University holiday.
Farooqi, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, cited low college student voting numbers as reasoning for petitioning administration to give students the day off on Election Day.
“This would be a holiday that would allow people to get to the polls, number one, and actually cast their ballots,” Farooqi said, “but also a whole lot of other things that are really important to be a part of the process of shaping our government.”
This change would not occur this year, however. Farooqi aims to have the University make class attendance optional on Election Day 2020, with plans to implement an official holiday starting on the next federal election year in 2022.
This would give students the same rights as staff, Farooqi said. Faculty received an email from Brown last week requesting that supervisors give staff sufficient time off to cast their ballots.
Farooqi also said Election Day opportunities aren’t limited to voting because students can volunteer as poll workers or for political campaigns.
“Stepping up, stepping in as poll workers as younger, healthier people can not only protect our seniors,” Farooqi said, “but it can also make sure polling places stay open, which protects our democracy.”
The resolution also included the request to participate in a national study organized by Tufts University that would help gather more data on student voting rates at BU. Participation in the study is free.
The resolution had nearly 400 supporters as a petition on Change.org and passed with a 38-vote affirmative.
Previously during the meeting, StuGov also confirmed two co-chairs for sexual assault awareness organization 16,000 Strong.
Newly confirmed 16,000 Strong co-chair Annie Mayne, a sophomore in the College of Communication, said the experiences posted by Instagram account @campus.survivors were a “wake-up call” for her.
“Up until the creation of this account, we had all known that sexual assault was a problem at BU, like it is any college campus,” Mayne said. “But once it did launch, we were forced to see just how prevalent assault and harassment is in our own community.”
Mayne and co-chair MJ Atang said they plan on pushing for “repeated” mandatory training sessions for University faculty and staff.
16,000 Strong is working to create additional mandatory training procedures for student organizations, Mayne said, adding the organization has held voluntary trainings for several fraternities, and plans to also create training geared toward “sexual agency and empowerment.”
“So much of consent training is just, ‘Don’t rape and do this,’” Mayne said, “but not about how as a survivor or potential survivor you can empower yourself to have sexual agency and choose situations to be in and things like that.”
Atang said the pair is looking to change BU’s required Sexual Misconduct Prevention Training for incoming first-years to a mandatory four-year in-person course.
“Instead of it being on your computer where you can just click through and it’s really easy,” Atang said, “we want to put on a presentation and have people mandate that they have to show up and attend at least once a year.”
16,000 Strong and the Mental Health Committee will hold a town hall on mental health and sexual assault Tuesday through Zoom.
Mayne and Atang were confirmed as co-chairs with 36 votes and 38 votes respectively.
