{"id":86,"date":"2016-10-30T21:54:17","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T01:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/?page_id=86"},"modified":"2016-11-03T15:23:29","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T19:23:29","slug":"not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Not much election excitement on Philly’s college campuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Jennifer Cohen<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are no signs encouraging students to vote, there are no campaign posters and no information about polling places. The small posters on the bulletin boards that have anything to do with the election on one campus read, “The Power of the Pantsuit,” and \u00a0students walked right past them on a recent busy Homecoming weekend. The wide spread apathy among college students in Philadelphia for the 2016 election can be seen across the three major campuses, but students still feel the need to vote anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like anyone that\u2019s running, but I have to vote because you have to be a part of history because this election is crazy,\u201d said Tyler Rosenthal, 22, of Norwalk, Connecticut, a student at Drexel University.<\/p>\n

There are three large universities in Philadelphia area that attract a very varied demographic. Temple University is a State College, Drexel University is a private research school, and University of Pennsylvania is Ivy League, but the voter apathy at each of these schools is something they all have in common.<\/p>\n

The Temple University Owls are a Division I school in North Philadelphia, with a great football and basketball team. On the Saturday afternoon of Halloween weekend students wore school colors while they walked around campus, past the 110-foot bell tower, to make their way to the football stadium for the big game against the Cincinnati Bearcats.<\/p>\n

In a campus caf\u00e9, Amanda Lien, 18, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, talked about writing a story for Temple News<\/a> about students starting a petition on campus to have the administration cancel classes on Election Day so students could vote. Lien said she is not very political, but understood why the students created the petition because they feared a lack of voter turnout in Philadelphia. The petition didn\u2019t get very far, it got less than 800 signatures out of the 39,000 students that attend the university. The administration ignored it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEight hundred signatures are fairly low compared to the population that is Temple University,\u201d said Lien. \u201cThe administration just had more important things to worry about right now, things like cancelling classes on a Tuesday to go vote might not seem like such a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Temple University did have student groups and organizations to try and get students excited about the election and to register to vote. The tents that said “Register to Vote”, according to Lien, didn\u2019t have any students in them besides the one person manning the table. There were other efforts, as well, with people who held up signs asking students if they cared about a certain cause. That was more successful, she said.<\/p>\n

But students are allowed to register through their college campuses with the address they use on campus. The convenience of being able to register on campus and then vote on campus is what drives a lot of students to sign up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were just out here asking questions, having the flyers ready for you, really easy, took two minutes, and done,\u201d said Callen Hunter, 18, of Paoli, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

A lot of excitement among students has been about being able to vote for the first time. Students feel proud to be able to vote and directly participate in the election even if they feel apathetic about the candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always seen my parents go out and vote, so I\u2019ve wanted to do it, it\u2019s cool voting for the first time,\u201d said Sam Feldman, 18, of South Jersey, who is voting for Clinton.<\/p>\n

\"Sam

Sam Feldman, 18, of South Jersey, is a student at Temple University who is voting this year because he is finally at the age where he can. By Jennifer Cohen<\/p><\/div>\n

With voter turnout as the biggest issue with young adults, it\u2019s important that the 155,000 students in Philadelphia have the resources on campus to help them understand the need to vote, and how to vote, experts say. Since 2008, the percentage of 18-24 year olds voting has been declining every presidential election year. Mike Burns, the National Director for the Campus Vote Project<\/a> in Washington D.C., said the organization started in 2012 because they saw that students aren\u2019t familiar with the process of voting and want to make sure students do go vote with their help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little bit nervous given the kind of negative tones in this election, that more of the students we engage with would be turned off by that, but I\u2019ve traveled and visited a number of our campuses the last couple weeks and a lot of students realize there are other candidates and issues on the ballots even aside from the presidential race,\u201d said Burns, 33. \u201cThe swing states, I think folks in those places really kind of see that they could have an impact on the election directly, and those folks don\u2019t feel turned off by what\u2019s been going on because they see even more directly than others what their individual vote can have.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a busy Homecoming weekend at the University of Pennsylvania in West Philadelphia, alumni and students dressed up in their red and blue to watch the football game against Brown University. Locust Walk, the main path through campus surrounded by tall trees and historic buildings, was filled with students drinking at their fraternity houses, families carrying their children, and friends meeting up to get ready for the game.<\/p>\n

At Donald Trump\u2019s alma mater, students are leaning a lot more towards the Democrats. According to a survey done by Penn College Republicans in September, 60% of Penn Republicans do not support Trump.<\/p>\n

Sam Iacobellis, 21, who is the co-president of Penn for Hillary, said UPenn\u2019s students are a lot more politically active compared to other campuses, despite the apparent apathy on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do as much as we can to get people to vote, get people excited about the Hillary Clinton campaign, and bucking the millennial trend of apathy, which we have not found at all here on campus, said Iacobellis, of Manchester, Connecticut.<\/p>\n

\"Sam

Sam Iacobellis, 21, of Manchester Connecticut, is the Co-President of the Penn for Hillary campaign at the University of Pennsylvania. By Jennifer Cohen<\/p><\/div>\n

There may have been an effort to get students registered to vote and get excited about the election before the cutoff date of October 11th<\/sup>, but there is still an apparent apathy. On campus there are few signs that have anything to do with an election. On a busy Homecoming weekend, there are three bulletin boards on Locust Walk, the main path that spans seven blocks through campus, posters about the election are scarce and buried under other flyers, that no one stops to look at.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a little bit disillusioned about this election, on both sides, with Donald Trump and with the whole DNC not being 100 percent honest,\u201d said Michael John, 19, of Lakeland, Florida.<\/p>\n

\"Michael

Michael John, 19, Lakeland FL, is a University of Pennsylvania sophomore who feels disillusioned about this election due to all of the lies by both candidates. By Jennifer Cohen<\/p><\/div>\n

With over 24,000 students on UPenn\u2019s campus only 549 people registered to vote with the on campus organization to help students register, Penn Leads the Vote. Although that number may be small, Daniel Lilling and Zakya Hall, Fox Fellows for Penn Leads the Vote, believe students are still very involved with this election.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost everyone at Penn, who is an undergrad, is a first time voter and so a lot of people look at this election and they think \u2018what a crazy time it is to be a first time voter,\u2019 but definitely I think it gets people riled up about it,\u201d said Lilling, 20, of Westchester County, New York. \u201cStudents kind of like voting in a state where they feel like their vote might make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drexel University, may have a dragon as their mascot, but the students at the college are more intellectual than athletic. The university is just a block away from the University of Pennsylvania, in West Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Students at Drexel University get riled up when talking about the election, but they really don\u2019t care for either candidate too much. There are no posters encouraging students to vote, but most of them will be at the polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who says \u2018I\u2019m not going to vote,\u2019 it\u2019s like no, people fought and died for the right to vote, so at the end of the day you have to pick somebody,\u201d said Lukas Rociunas-Englert, 22, Nyack, New York. \u201cQuite frankly if you\u2019re going to vote third party at least you\u2019ll do that, than not vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jennifer Cohen There are no signs encouraging students to vote, there are no campaign posters and no information about polling places. The small posters on the bulletin boards that have anything to do with the election on one campus read, “The Power of the Pantsuit,” and \u00a0students walked right past them on a recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":92,"parent":11,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNot much election excitement on Philly's college campuses - Election 2016: The State of Pennsylvania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not much election excitement on Philly's college campuses - Election 2016: The State of Pennsylvania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Jennifer Cohen There are no signs encouraging students to vote, there are no campaign posters and no information about polling places. The small posters on the bulletin boards that have anything to do with the election on one campus read, “The Power of the Pantsuit,” and \u00a0students walked right past them on a recent […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Election 2016: The State of Pennsylvania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-11-03T19:23:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2016\/10\/30042241773_dc3676d646_z.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"427\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/\",\"name\":\"Not much election excitement on Philly's college campuses - Election 2016: The State of Pennsylvania\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-31T01:54:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-11-03T19:23:29+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Election 2016: Philadelphia\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Not much election excitement on Philly’s college campuses\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/\",\"name\":\"Election 2016: The State of Pennsylvania\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Not much election excitement on Philly's college campuses - Election 2016: The State of Pennsylvania","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Not much election excitement on Philly's college campuses - Election 2016: The State of Pennsylvania","og_description":"by Jennifer Cohen There are no signs encouraging students to vote, there are no campaign posters and no information about polling places. The small posters on the bulletin boards that have anything to do with the election on one campus read, “The Power of the Pantsuit,” and \u00a0students walked right past them on a recent […]","og_url":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/","og_site_name":"Election 2016: The State of Pennsylvania","article_modified_time":"2016-11-03T19:23:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":427,"url":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2016\/10\/30042241773_dc3676d646_z.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/","url":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/","name":"Not much election excitement on Philly's college campuses - Election 2016: The State of Pennsylvania","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-10-31T01:54:17+00:00","dateModified":"2016-11-03T19:23:29+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/not-much-election-excitement-phillys-college-campuses\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Election 2016: Philadelphia","item":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/philadelphia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Not much election excitement on Philly’s college campuses"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/#website","url":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/","name":"Election 2016: The State of Pennsylvania","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94,"href":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86\/revisions\/94"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}