Sept. 2024 Department Debrief: OSU Votes
September 16, 2024
OSU Votes
To contact OSU Votes: Email Osuvotes@osu.edu, follow them on Instagram, visit their FAQ page or check out OSU Votes website.
For more information on voting, visit Ohio State's Leadership and Community Engagement Voter Resource page.
Department Debrief is a monthly article from the Parent and Family Relations office dedicated to helping family members and supporters better understand the services, opportunities and support offered by particular offices for students.
This month, our team met with OSU Votes, a nonpartisan, student-led initiative focused on registering, educating and motivating students to participate in elections.
1. If you had just 30 seconds to convince someone to vote in the upcoming presidential election, what would you say to ensure they understand why their vote is crucial and what’s at stake?
Politics influence and impact everyone’s lives, Meagen Rinard, the assistant director of Student Life’s Community and Civic Engagement Office who oversees OSU Votes, said.
“It is great that they want to vote in a presidential election, but what really matters is the other races that they’re voting in too,” Rinard said. “Encouraging folks to vote because it’s not only presidents and those higher up that make policies and impact, but a large majority of policies that impact daily life are made by those at the state and local level.”
Rinard said she understands presidential elections are significant, but she also stressed the importance of participating in less-publicized races that can have an equally significant effect on everyday issues like taxes, infrastructure, health care and public safety.
“[Ohio State] realizes there’s a variety of reasons why some students can’t or choose not to vote, but it is still important to be engaged citizens,” Rinard said. “With Ohio State’s motto as citizenship or education for citizenship, we want students to engage in the community around them and get to know the people and the places outside of campus.”
Voting is a fundamental part of civic engagement, contributing to the shaping of communities as well as society.
In addition to OSU Votes, Rinard said the Leadership and Community Engagement Office provides opportunities for students to collaborate with nonprofits through Buck-I-SERV and the Nonprofit Immersion Program, participate in community activities via student organizations and the Center for Belonging and Social Change and learn about other forms of civic engagement, such as how to attend city council meetings.
“Our goal is to provide the resources and information so that students who are voting [and] students who can’t or choose not to vote are able to engage in the Columbus community and branch out from campus too,” Rinard said.
2. What is OSU Votes?
OSU Votes is a student-led initiative within Ohio State’s Office of Student Life dedicated to voter registration, education and engagement, according to OSU Votes’ website.
“It is a student initiative to provide nonpartisan resources and support for students to engage in voter registration, voter education and civic engagement at large,” Rinard said. “We do that by providing resources throughout our website, tabling [events] and workshops that are primarily student-made and student-run.”
Emphasizing its nonpartisan approach, Rinard said OSU Votes provides students with the information they need to make informed decisions about voting and community involvement, allowing them to decide what aligns best with their values and interests.
OSU Votes has gained national recognition for its efforts, Rinard said. In 2020, Ohio State was featured in Washington Monthly’s Best Colleges for Student Voting Honor Roll and was named one of only 83 schools as a voter-friendly campus by the Campus Votes Project and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.
The program also earned a “Bronze Seal” from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for achieving a student voter turnout rate between 50% and 59% in the 2016 election and was recognized in 2024 for having a highly established action plan to provide students with voter-related information.
Rinard said these accolades reflect the dedication of OSU Votes’ students in strengthening and expanding voter engagement programs and resources.
OSU Votes is also part of the Big Ten Voting Challenge, a competition encouraging civic engagement across Big Ten universities, where schools compete for titles like “Greatest Overall Turnout” or “Greatest Increase in Voting Rates.”
“It’s a pretty cool thing to have in partnership with our peers across the Big Ten,” Rinard said.
Rinard said OSU Votes offers in-person and virtual workshops covering topics such as voter registration, informed voting, out-of-state voting procedures and media literacy. With ten workshops planned for this semester, these sessions aim to equip students with essential voting information and increase their confidence from registration to election day.
The best way for students to get involved with OSU Votes, Rinard said, is to just be aware of it, share information with others and utilize it as a resource when needed. In the spring, they are also looking to hire students who are passionate about spreading the word about the initiative.
3. If could give parents, families and/or students one word of advice, what would it be?
Rinard said her advice for parents and families is to recognize that students are the future leaders and citizens of our society. Their engagement and involvement today lays the groundwork for their roles in shaping society in the future.
Rinard said she recommends students be actively involved in their communities to foster a sense of responsibility and empowerment while building a strong foundation for informed and active citizenship.
Voting, however, isn’t the only important thing, Rinard said. Being civically engaged in a variety of ways helps nurture a commitment to making a difference while understanding the impact a few can have on the many.
Fostering such engagement prepares students to take on significant roles in society, make informed choices and ultimately contribute to making the world a better place, Rinard said.
Brooke Tacsar
Student Assistant
Parent and Family Relations