Check Your Voter Registration: CC student group readies for the November election

Plus, what you missed in last week’s Town Hall on Tuition and Billing

Good morning, and happy Thursday. On this pre-pandemic date in 1892, 40 people left the Manitou Mansions House for a quick evening trip to the Garden of the Gods. (Colorado is currently under “Safer at Home” orders, which prohibit gatherings of more than 10 people.)

Today, we talk to some Colorado College students preparing for the November election, and we recap the highlights from last week’s Town Hall on Tuition and Billing. 

➡️ICYMI: On Tuesday, our resident microbiologist Phoebe Lostroh gave her weekly forecast for El Paso County and explained different testing strategies for the coronavirus, including snot, saliva, and wastewater.   

🔌DID YOU SEE US?: Our project got some national exposure this week in eCampus News, which covers higher education. The origin and mission of this newsletter was the featured item, and we liked their headline: “Students vs. the pandemic: How a journalism team is chronicling COVID.” 

✉️In Your Inbox: Rochelle Dickey, acting Dean of Students and acting Vice President for Student Life, sent an email with the following updates:

• Students who are arriving on campus from outside the U.S. will no longer be required to isolate or quarantine. “We do not want to single out any students,” Dickey writes. “As we all know, there are numerous ‘hot spots’ which change frequently.” 

• Because of Colorado College’s new plan to test all students for COVID-19 when they arrive on campus, New Student Orientation and the Priddy Experience will be virtual until students receive their test results. The college is exploring the possibility of offering an in-person Priddy Experience over Block Break 1.

⚽️Soccer Postponed: The Mountain West, the conference CC women’s soccer team belongs to, recently announced the “indefinite postponement” of all fall competition. They are exploring the possibility of rescheduling some sports for the spring season. This news leaves CC men’s ice hockey team as the only sport still scheduled to compete this fall.

CC Votes is organizing training sessions and attending meetings with state officials ahead of 2020 election

Ahead of the June primary election in Colorado, Colorado College students received emails with information about how to change their voter registrations so they could still vote, despite many people not living on campus at the time. Preparation for the November election is underway, so we talked to three students leading CC Votes, a student group on campus that works to increase voter engagement and turnout, about how they plan to help students vote on campus this fall and what other initiatives they are involved with.  

🗣This is our third report about how the pandemic might affect the general election. We’ve talked to a Colorado College parent and student about their research into the challenges students could face voting this fall if they’re not on campus, and we interviewed CC student government leaders about their plans for campus voter engagement.  

🗳How CC Votes is preparing campus for the election

Last week, some CC Residential Advisors, Bridge Program mentors, and First-Year Program mentors underwent voter registration training so they can register first-year students to vote during New Student Orientation and Block 1. The training, led by civic engagement organization New Era Colorado, lasts about 90 minutes and includes information about how the registration forms work and the nonpartisan nature of a voter registration drive.  

Last year, the CC student government said they registered more than 100 students to vote during new student move-in. Voter registration requires filling out a paper form, which means CC Votes leaders this year are hammering out the small details, including how they will clean pens between uses. 

Colorado automatically sends mail-in ballots to every registered voter in the state, but if a previous ballot was undeliverable (including the ballots the campus mail center legally couldn’t forward), their registration was inactivated, meaning they won’t receive a ballot for the November election unless they reactivate their registration. Any student whose voter registration was inactivated will receive a postcard with information about how to reactivate their registration. The campus mail center is able to forward the postcards, so students not living on campus will receive them at the address the mail center has on file. 

“No one should assume that they’re receiving a ballot,” Elena Martinez-Vivot ’21, one of the CC Votes leaders, tells The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project. “It’s crucial that everyone verifies their voter registration, and no matter if they updated it a month ago or six months ago, everyone needs to verify and update their voter registration.” 

There are two ways to reactivate or verify your voter registration.

• If you receive a postcard: fill it out and mail it back as soon as possible. 

• Update your information online. 

CC Votes is also planning to provide information for students living in Colorado, but who plan to vote absentee in their home state. 

“We want to make sure students have a ballot, first and foremost, because we understand that there’s going to be impediments due to COVID,” says Theodore-Sky Weiss ’21, another CC Votes leader. “The second thing that we’re going to be moving on in a couple of weeks and once we kind of get statewide support and the infrastructure set up, is to then make sure not that they just get a ballot, but that they vote, and that they vote safely.”

📨Leaders are meeting with local and state officials to plan for this election and the future 

Colorado College is one of 14 higher-ed institutions in the state participating in the ALL IN Challenge, a nonpartisan event that asks campuses to encourage more students to vote and to create plans to increase student engagement. Each school is ranked based on the success of its efforts, and the results will provide CC leaders with information about how their work aligns with other campuses. 

“Our thing is, we want to create a robust infrastructure and kind of have students be this voice as a catalyst … for youth change and youth turnout,” Weiss says.

Every school in Colorado has its own campus voting structure, but CC Votes is working with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office to create a state-level youth votes committee. Martinez-Vivot, Weiss, and Sophie Cardin ’22, CC student government Vice President of Outreach, will serve on it, along with students from other schools and organizations across the state. 

CC Votes leaders were hoping to get a voter service and polling center, or VSPC, on campus this fall, but it’s not looking like it will happen for this election because CC isn’t large enough to legally require one, Cardin says. Cardin plans to lobby state legislators to include VSPCs at campuses like CC during future elections. 

“I’m really concerned that if people aren’t voting right away, like within the week that they get their ballot, they’re not going to have their votes counted,” Cardin says. “So part of our efforts will have to be making sure that … everyone mails their ballot back in time, or if not goes to vote in person.”

Latest Town Hall on Tuition and Billing: No payment plan fees and no housing refunds if you leave for Thanksgiving

Last week, Brian Young, vice president of Information Technology, moderated a Town Hall on tuition and billing with the following panelists: Lori Seager, associate vice president of finance; Mark Hatch, vice president for enrollment; and Shannon Amundson, director of financial aid. Here’s what you missed:

• CLASSES: Colorado College will offer 10 blocks this year instead of the usual 8 1/2 for the standard comprehensive fee. In the fall, administrators will begin discussing whether or not the college will continue this expanded schedule in the 2021-22 year. Students can start their year with any one of these blocks, mixing and matching to come up with a flexible schedule that works best for them, but Hatch recommends students take advantage of the extra blocks as opportunities to earn credit: “Expect obviously, particularly during the fall semester, that many or most of your blocks are not going to be in person,” Hatch said. 

• J BLOCK: J Block, CC’s version of what some schools call a “J Term,” will offer both half block and full credit courses. Students can browse some course options for J Block in Banner, the all-purpose web platform where students can sign up for classes and view their transcripts. 

• BILLING: The college will bill students for the whole 2020-21 year in the fall. Billing statements appeared on students’ accounts yesterday. The college is offering three payment plans: a two-semester option with payments due in September and February; a nine-month option with payments due each month from September to May; and an option to pay for the full year in September. The college will not charge fees for any of the payment plans. Administrators have said the decision to bill for the full year provides students and their families more flexibility. “The answer is not that we’re trying to punish families,” Amundson said. “The answer is if we bill upfront, then students can ... flexibly take whatever blocks they want to take without their billing going up and down every semester and constantly changing,” she added. 

• TUITION & FEES: At this time, the college is not offering a tuition reduction for the 2020-21 academic year. Tuition is $10,144 per block for the first three blocks of a semester, regardless of the class format. “The Cabinet and the Trustees discussed this in May and decided to offer two additional blocks of credit without an additional cost for the year,” Hatch wrote in the Zoom Q&A. Seager said if students cannot be on campus for seven or more blocks this year because of government restrictions, the college will calculate housing and meal-plan refunds. However, if students voluntarily decide to go home for a block or choose to go home for Thanksgiving during Block 4 and aren’t able to return, the college views that as a choice and would still charge for housing.

• FINANCIAL AID: During the 2020-21 academic year, financial aid awards will remain proportional to the number of blocks a student enrolls in. Currently, aid awards show up as “anticipated aid” because the college cannot disburse aid until the student’s first class of the semester begins. If a student elects to take remote classes from home, the college will adjust their cost of attendance and financial aid, what Amundson says is a “long-standing” policy. If a student plans to take summer courses, they do not need to fill out a separate application process for financial aid, as they would have done in past years. 

About the CC COVID-19 Reporting Project

The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project is a student-faculty collaboration by Colorado College student journalists Miriam Brown and Arielle Gordon, Journalism Institute Director Steven Hayward, Visiting Assistant Professor of Journalism Corey Hutchins, and Assistant Professor of English Najnin Islam. Work by Phoebe Lostroh, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology at CC and National Science Foundation Program Director in Genetic Mechanisms, Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, will appear from time to time, as will infographics by Colorado College students Rana Abdu, Aleesa Chua, Sara Dixon, Jia Mei, and Lindsey Smith.

The project seeks to provide frequent updates about CC and other higher education institutions during the pandemic by providing original reporting, analysis, interviews with campus leaders, and context about what state and national headlines mean for the CC community. 

📬 Enter your email address to subscribe and get the newsletter in your inbox each time it comes out. You can reach us with questions, feedback, or news tips by emailing ccreportingproject@gmail.com.