KU Serves Week focuses on voter education

LAWRENCE — The Center for Service Learning’s (CSL) fall KU Serves Week is taking place this week (Oct. 5-9) in conjunction with National Voter Education Week. During this week, the CSL and their Civic Engagement Ambassador partners are sharing information about registering to vote, learning about candidates on the ballot and more through events and social media.

The Civic Engagement Ambassadors involves representatives at the University of Kansas who are interested in advancing civic engagement, including voting, for students, faculty and staff. George Midgett, director of Student-Athlete Development, Leadership & Outreach, serves as an ambassador and has worked with student-athletes to develop the Jayhawk Athlete Movement.

“In the endless pursuit of equality and equity, the Jayhawk Athlete Movement was created to provide student-athletes a platform for them to engage, educate, empower and evolve their fellow athletes and the Jayhawk community on the issues of social injustice, systemic racism and the power of voting. While there is no panacea for today’s injustice, we are working to show students that their voices and actions matter. By standing and fighting together, they are ensuring that their appeals will not go unheard,” Midgett said.

The Educate and Act: Civic Engagement in 2020 series continues with "Queering the Vote," which will take place at 6 p.m. today, Oct. 8. The event will be held over Zoom and will feature expert panelists from KU and the surrounding community.

This collaborative partnership between the Center for Service Learning, The Commons, and the Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity creates opportunities to learn about democracy and empower attendees to participate in civic action.

“Exercising our civic responsibility through voting should be unifying. It is important to consider how engagement in the civic process may be experienced differently by various groups of our KU campus community. Each of us can contribute to setting the conditions in which all Jayhawks feel safe, supported, and empowered to be civically engaged," said Jomella Watson-Thompson, director of the Center for Service Learning. 

Additionally, the Center for Service Learning is unveiling its new Civic Engagement Hub this week, which will serve as a one-stop shop for students, faculty, staff, and others interested engaging in civic action.

“Fostering democratic ideals and civic engagement across KU, in every way we can, should feel like a responsibility to every member of the Jayhawk community. Students are often inexperienced voters and lack civic engagement experiences, so creating a positive culture around civic engagement for KU students can combat this issue and contribute to the development of lifelong civically aware community members that our society so desperately needs,” said Logan Stenseng, Student Senate KU Government Relations director and KU Civic Engagement Ambassador.

For a full list of events occurring during KU Serves Week, visit KU Serves Week.

Make sure to connect with the Center for Service Learning on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to follow KU Serves Week. Share your own civic engagement stories using the hashtags #KUVotes and #KUServeStories.

Through community and campus partnerships, the Center for Service Learning advances service-learning, community-engaged scholarship and civic engagement that fosters a commitment to participation for a diverse, just, and global society.