Dear CCA Students, Faculty, and Staff,

Election Day is less than a week away—Tuesday, November 8. If you are eligible, please vote! If you can, vote early. 

At CCA, we’re committed to working with students, faculty, staff, and election officials to reduce barriers to student voting. In 2020, 65.6% of eligible CCA students turned out to vote in the U.S. Presidential Election. Although we’re not electing a president this year, there are many measures on the ballot that will affect our lives and our futures. And every single vote is important, as this letter by one of CCA’s Student Community Voting Organizers, AnnMarie Giglio (MFA Writing), makes so clear. 

Members of our CCA community, guided by Creative Citizens in Action (CCA@CCA), have put together many resources to support voting, especially for students. See what they’ve compiled to help you make a voting plan, research the issues and, most importantly, VOTE! Our goal is to increase student voting rates, help students form the habits of active and informed citizenship, and make democratic participation a core value on our campus.

If you’re in San Francisco and want to vote on Election Day, CCA is an official polling place—you can drop off your California ballot in Blattner Hall at 75 Arkansas Street. And if you need it, know that CCA provides employees with time off to vote (check with HR if you have questions). If you missed the deadline to register to vote, you can register and vote in person with a provisional ballot on Election Day. Your ballot will be processed and counted once the county elections office has completed the voter registration verification process for you.

While international students can’t vote in U.S. elections, you can participate in other ways. I encourage you to talk with other students, faculty, and staff about issues that are important to them—and you! Here’s a short presentation to help get you started: 5 Steps to understanding U.S. Elections as an international student. Or you can contribute to a project by First Year Program faculty member Jasmine Zhang by suggesting your own proposition, which could be selected to be screen printed during an event in the Nave on November 8—Election Day— between 11 am and 4 pm.

I am encouraged by how we at CCA put our art, design, and making skills to work as creative citizens in our community and beyond. Congratulations to CCA students Anjni Shah (Graduate Design), Riah Trevino (Film and Individualized Studies), and Josh Yule (Graphic Design), whose sticker designs will be distributed on campus as part of CCA’s first Get Out the Vote Sticker Design Contest. And I want to thank Film program faculty member Helen De Michiel for giving the CCA community a “sneak peek” screening earlier this week of her upcoming documentary BETWEEN THE SUN AND THE SIDEWALK, which follows youth community organizers in Stockton. Finally, be sure to explore the works by CCA students, faculty, and staff participating in the CCA@CCA Election Week Activation. 

Thank you to everyone in our community who participates in the process of democracy, through voting, organizing, or creative citizenship. Your vote, and your voice, matter.

Sincerely,

Steve