Courtesy: Purdue Athletics
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue Athletics announced today that, through collaboration with athletics administration, head coaches and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), no required athletic activities will be conducted on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020.
“We recognize that there is no greater civic responsibility and no better way to make your voice heard than by casting your vote,” said Mike Bobinski, vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics. “The decision to suspend activities on Nov. 3 was made in an effort to remove any barriers that might prevent our student-athletes or staff from making it to the polls and participating in this important part of our democratic process. I’m proud of our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for bringing this initiative forward and for their commitment to making a difference.”
Purdue Athletics’ student-athlete development staff began an educational campaign in July to encourage voter registration and educate student-athletes on the importance of voting and civic engagement.
“With support from our athletics director Mike Bobinski and through collaboration with the Big Ten and the Big Ten Voting Committee, we have been able to educate our student-athletes about the importance of exercising your right to vote,” said Peyton Stovall, assistant athletics director for student-athlete development. “Having Nov. 3 as an off day further demonstrates Purdue Athletics’ commitment to the holistic growth of our student-athletes.”
In addition to the educational campaign, the department recently began working through partnerships with state and local officials and guest speakers to encourage the student-athletes to be informed and engaged voters.
“As we continue to serve our student-athletes, thereby creating change agents within the Purdue Athletics community and beyond, meaningful civic engagement provides our Boilermakers with the tools to develop an understanding of their individual roles and responsibilities within the complex social, economic and political systems of our country,” said Lacee’ Carmon-Johnson, director of professional development and associate director of academic support services.
Moratoriums are nothing’s new for Purdue. They actually take a moratorium at every Saturday football game, Swimming championship meet and NCAA basketball game they’re scheduled to compete in.
Def support this. I don’t think asking one day off is that much, and nothing should be impeding college kids to go vote. Idk if they would have something scheduled, but this should afffect games too. So now there’s no chance they’re in another state on Election Day
It’s more symbolic than anything else, if we’re being honest. If they have a competition scheduled, that’s exactly what absentee voting is for. Otherwise, it’s no more difficult to vote on election day than anyone else with a FT job.
And of course, most athletes do not live in West Lafayette, so if they do vote they either have to 1) skip school and head home, or 2) fill out the absentee ballot they requested which would have been mailed already anyways.
That’s not true. You said this once before on another thread, and I corrected it, but you may have missed the reply in the thread.
Legally, college students can vote either at their ‘home’ or where they go to college.
The only spot where this could cause them problems would be if they got residence for purposes of a specific academic or other merit scholarship that had residency requirements. By voting at school or at home, depending on the residency requirements of that scholarship, it COULD cause an issue with a scholarship, but not necessarily. I don’t believe that this would matter for athletic scholarships.
Because you can’t take 15 min to vote and train on the same day