As the 2016 U.S. Presidential election has captivated people around the world, it’s no surprise that the John Jay College community abounds with election-related activities on and off campus. To kick-off the fall election season, on September 26, the College hosted a live broadcast of the popular The Young Turks on Fusion program. An hour before the first U.S. Presidential debate, John Jay students participated in a spirited discussion about national issues with program hosts Ana Kasparian and John Iadarola and special guest, actor Judah Friedlander. To view the discussion, click here.
In the coming weeks, members of the College community will take part in a variety of events and initiatives to promote and encourage voting and to help inform the electorate. Here’s a sampling of the upcoming activities.
October 5, 5:00 -7:00 PM
Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, L3
John Jay College, WABC-TV Channel 7, Univision Noticias 41 and other partners, will co-host a voter registration and preparation town hall meeting with special outreach to the Latino community. The event sponsors also include the New York Daily News, Hispanic Federation, El Diario/La Prensa and The League of Women Voters of the City of New York. Learn more.
October 18, 6:30 PM
National Press Club, Washington, DC
Professor Gloria J. Browne-Marshall will discuss her latest book The Voting Rights War: The NAACP and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice at the National Press Club. The book tells the story of the courageous and bloody battle for voting rights fought by civil rights lawyers in the Supreme Court and by those foot soldiers who paid the ultimate price for our right to vote.
October 19, 8:30 PM
UMI Student Lounge, L. 74.02 NB
Sponsored by the Urban Male Initiative (UMI), members of the college community will gather to watch the final U.S. Presidential debate.
John Jay College student Miggie Garcia, a junior and U.S. Army veteran, has been selected as a fellow for the Common Cause Election Protection Project. She will help design and participate in voter registration efforts, and help recruit, train, assign and deploy volunteer poll monitors at busy polling places – especially in communities with a history of voting problems – during the November presidential elections, as well as learn how New York City administers its elections through monitoring NYC Board of Elections meetings.
Professors Heath Brown and Brian Arbour of the Department of Public Administration are co-teaching PAD 380, a course titled “The Politics and Administration of the 2016 Election,” that will feature special guest speakers such as Josh King, who served as White House Director of Production for Presidential Events, 1993-1997, Bill Hemmer, co-anchor of FOX News Channel’s America's Newsroom, and Baratunde Thurston, writer, cultural critic and former supervising producer for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
October 24, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
Moot Court, room 6.68
The Department of Latin American and Latina/o Studies will host a panel discussion titled Immigrant Latinos and Political Action in America: The 2016 Presidential Election and Beyond. Panelists will include John Jay Professor Heath Brown, author of the recently published Immigrants and Electoral Politics: Nonprofit Organizing in a Time of Demographic Change, Laird Bergad, Lehman College Distinguished Professor and Director of the CUNY Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies, and José Dávila, Vice President for Policy and Government Relations at the Hispanic Federation. John Jay Professor John Gutiérrez will serve as moderator. For more information about this event, click here.
On September 7, Professor Brown also planned and participated in a discussion on presidential transitions at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
It’s a U.S. Presidential election, and for many John Jay students, the balloting that will take place in November 2016 will mark the first time in their lives that they have the opportunity to participate in the quadrennial high mark-water mark of American democracy. To read how students will approach this milestone, click here.
