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It’s a Wrap!
Sierra College Voter Registration Activities
Completed for Academic Year 2024-2025
By: Leslie Moonshine
Studying over, finals taken, plans for next year solidified. The Sierra College students and our AADC Voter Registration teams have wrapped up another academic year. While the elections of last November certainly did not bring the outcomes we had hoped for, we celebrate the conversations we’ve had, the connections we’ve made with students, the new voters we’ve registered, and the students we’ve encouraged to engage in political activism.
In total, we registered 168 students. All but 14 registrations occurred in the fall semester when election energy was high. This decrease in non-election years is very typical and may continue until closer to the 2026 election cycle. Many students continue to shun party affiliation and register as No Party Preference. They do, however, lean strongly democratic, so we continue to spend time and energy getting them to the ballot box. Our surveys help focus students on current issues. Our discussions provide an opportunity for students to express their opinions as they develop their world views and begin exercising their political muscle.
Springtime is a wonderful time to be on campus! The landscape is lush, and the weather is welcoming. The campus puts on numerous festivals and special events, including Earth Day and Job Fairs. Often there’s music playing, and the atmosphere is relaxed. Until finals, that is, then the stress is palpable. Students who usually stop to chat quickly take our survey and then scurry off to the library to study instead. Luckily, Sierra hosts therapy dogs and goats to pet to help students destress!
At the end of April, we once again joined forces with our sister group, Placer Action Network, for Earth Day. Robert Sherriff made “seed bursts” with students, and we conducted a survey entitled “Burst into Action” to ascertain what political actions attendees have taken and hope to take in the near future. [For full survey results, click on the link below.] It was an enjoyable day with many groups and vendors providing information and resources for protecting Mother Earth.
Following Earth Day, we had only a few more weeks to help direct students to the political storms that seem to be a constant since January 20. In one survey, we asked how students feel President Trump did on key topics in his first 100 days in office this term, and we provided 5 choices: Great, Good, The Same, Worse, Much Worse. Of the 50 responses to the question, “How is Trump doing on the Economy?” 8 answered Worse, and 32 answered Much Worse. One survey taker told us we needed a choice that was far stronger than Much Worse!
In another survey, we asked students to weigh in on four controversial actions of that week, actions that continue to reverberate in the political sphere:
(1) Trump’s acceptance of a $400 million Qatari jet for use as Air Force One; (2) the possible suspension of individuals’ rights to habeas corpus; (3) the defunding of SNAP benefits and Medicaid to pay for tax cuts to the wealthy; and (4) the granting of refugee status to white South Africans. Students were most concerned about the threat to habeas corpus and the cuts to SNAP, Medicaid and other safety net programs to provide tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.
Both the Tuesday and Wednesday teams conducted “Farewell” surveys during their final visits to campus. The Tuesday survey concentrated on what activities students might be interested in pursuing during their summer (Top answers: Learning a new skill; work or start a career); what would energize them (Top answers: Hiking or camping and traveling); and what “causes” sound the most interesting (Top answer: Volunteering for a charity). For the Wednesday team, the focus was on students’ overall plans for what comes next.
It is with both pride and a tinge of sadness that we bid goodbye to some of our “regulars” who will be moving on to new endeavors, including UC Davis, UC San Diego, Sac State, San Diego State, Cal Poly Humboldt, and more. Some students, though, will return to Sierra College campus for the fall semester (the third week of August) and once again, they will find the AADC Voter Registration teams conducting our signature surveys and encouraging them to vote!
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