In Fall 2019, the California State Legislature passed and the Governor signed into law Assembly Bill (AB) 963, also known as the Student Civic and Voter Empowerment Act (SCVEA) (Petrie-Norris Reference Petrie-Norris2019). This Act built on prior state legislation in 2003, 2007, 2014, and 2016 that focused on student voter-registration efforts (Warden-Washington Reference Warden-Washington2019). Moreover, this Act dovetails well with the California State Board of Education’s new State Seal for Civic Engagement established in 2020 (California Department of Education 2020), which was mandated by AB 24 in 2017 (Eggman Reference Eggman2017).
The Act establishes that the Student Civic and Voter Empowerment Program will be conducted by the Secretary of State in partnership with the California Community Colleges, California State University, and University of California.
Among the several requirements of the Act, it mandates that each campus of the California Community Colleges and the California State University and requests that each campus of the University of California:
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• Distribute, in consultation with the Secretary of State, campus-wide emails to all students with specified voting- and election-related dates and information and include specified dates on all print and online academic calendars.
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• Post on social media reminders to students of specified voter-related dates and information.
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• Designate one person per campus as the Civic and Voter Empowerment Coordinator with specified responsibilities, including development of a Civic and Voter Empowerment Action Plan. The first version of the legislation specifically called for each campus to designate one faculty member, staff member, or administrator as the Civic Engagement and Voter Director; however, this requirement was removed in subsequent versions.
At Cuyamaca College, we formed a work group; recruited students, faculty, staff, and administrators; and launched a Civic Engagement Leadership Program in Spring 2021. The following sections describe the process for implementing the SCVEA at the local level at Cuyamaca.
About Cuyamaca College
Cuyamaca College is a two-year community college located in East San Diego County, California. The college is one of two campuses in the Grossmont–Cuyamaca Community College District. The district is governed by a board of five locally elected trustees. In Fall 2020, the college had more than 8,800 students enrolled. Table 1 lists the race and ethnicity of the student population.
Table 1 Race and Ethnicity of All Students at Cuyamaca College
Formation of a Work Group
After reading the Academic Calendar Committee’s Agenda and Minutes, on October 2, 2020, I contacted our Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Jessica Robinson, to inquire about AB 963 and the college’s designated coordinator. She connected me with Dr. Lauren Vaknin, the Dean of Student Affairs.
In less than a month, we formed the SCVEA Work Group, which included students, faculty, and administrators, and held the first of six meetings.Footnote 1 The goal of the Work Group was to develop a Civic and Voter Empowerment Action Plan.
The Action Plan was developed by the Work Group and college staff. It was submitted to the California Secretary of State’s Office by Dr. Vaknin on December 1, 2020. The Action Plan describes (1) Civic Engagement Programs: Voter Registration Campus Efforts; (2) Community Building: Voter Education and Civic Engagement; and (3) the Civic Engagement Plan.
Civic Engagement Leadership Program
During our February 2021 meeting, the Work Group decided that we should initiate elements of our Civic Engagement Plan. One motivating reason was the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. This unfortunate, unexpected, and shocking event jolted members of the Work Group. We decided that instead of using the Spring 2021 semester to plan, we should simply get started.
One goal of the Civic Engagement Plan was to establish a Leadership Academy. In lieu of a fully developed Academy, it was decided to start small with a Civic Engagement Leadership Program. This program would launch after Spring Break and consist of three workshops. Cuyamaca’s Office of Student Affairs contracted with Heather Belk, Director of Associated Students at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), to facilitate these workshops.
Workshop 1: Post-Election Empowerment Plan
The first workshop was held on April 15, 2021, which corresponded with the week after Spring Break. The workshop was described as “The 2020 election season created a lot of feelings, questions, and convictions. Many of these emotions and perspectives were amplified by the violence on the nation’s Capitol. With the Inauguration complete, it is important to reflect on those experiences and create a personal plan for how you will continue to stay educated and involved in civic engagement, although the National Election cycle is complete for this past year. This workshop will feature a guided opportunity to do just that.” A total of 11 students participated in this first workshop, which was a meaningful start to our program.
Workshop 2: Civic Action and Reflection
The second workshop was held on May 6, 2021. The workshop description was as follows: “Civic action and reflection is a key component of developing one’s civic engagement identity. In this workshop, student leaders from UC San Diego Office of External Affairs and CALPIRG will share examples of civically focused actions they have participated in and open space for reflection on how these actions benefit individuals or communities.” This workshop facilitated an inter-institutional peer-to-peer engagement. Cuyamaca College students were able to hear from and interact with their peers at UCSD. A total of 14 students participated in this workshop.
Workshop 3: Civic Engagement and Me
The third and final workshop was held on May 20, 2021. The workshop was described as “Often, we do not realize that the things we are doing out of personal interest also translate to being civically engaged. Using the AAC&U definition of Civic Engagement which states Civic Engagement ‘means promoting a quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes,’ participants in this workshop will think about their own hobbies, majors, and organizational involvement to identify areas of community impact from the things they are already studying or spending time on.” Seven students participated in this workshop.
Conclusion
In addition to the establishment of the Civic Engagement Leadership Program, another noteworthy action resulted from this effort. Serving as a new forum to discuss student civic and voter empowerment, the Work Group fostered a meaningful discussion about our unique student population and its ability to become civically engaged. Two-year community college students are mostly first-generation, hail from lower-income households, and are people of color. We had a robust discussion about the ability—or rather the inability—of students to become civically engaged and involved on and off campus due to financial constraints. This discussion resulted in the establishment of financial stipends for student leaders at Cuyamaca College.
This discussion resulted in the establishment of financial stipends for student leaders at the college.
On reflection, I learned the following five lessons from this hastily organized effort, which will inform our future efforts. First, a partnership between student-services staff and instructional faculty are necessary at community colleges. As a faculty member, I was able to promote the Work Group, the Action Plan, and the Leadership Program to my students. I also partnered with the Dean of Student Affairs to effectively organize and implement our efforts. Second, we need to collect demographic data about student participants in the Leadership Program and related activities. Third, we need to invite more instructional faculty to become involved so that more students can become involved. Fourth, we can compare our efforts with other colleges and universities throughout the state. Recent research by Chavez (Reference Chavez2021) describes how community colleges conceptualized and operationalized the requirements of the Act. Fifth, the Work Group will discuss the inclusion of an assessment component to measure the impact of our Leadership Program on students’ knowledge of civic engagement and leadership principles, internal and external political efficacy, and participation in community-based projects.
