For many, election season ended on Nov. 5. For Vote Oswego, that was just another beginning.

Last semester, SUNY Oswego’s nonpartisan voter registration and education campaign, Vote Oswego, had goals to increase student voter registration, education and increase their own visibility on campus. 

“Last semester we were able to test out some great new supports for students,” said Allison Rank, political science professor and campaign manager for Vote Oswego. 

Rank mentioned Vote Oswego’s shuttles to the polls on Election Day and the campaign’s participation in Laker Launch, providing educational materials about the voter registration process and the importance of voting to incoming students.

“But,” Rank said, “we know that the election process is complicated and confusing – often folks don’t even know what questions they have.”

This semester, Vote Oswego is putting in the work through new projects to make an even bigger impact on student participation in local elections coming up in the fall.

Ashley Girdlestone, one of this semester’s two local politics interns for the campaign, said this semester’s work “is directly designed with improvement upon last semester in mind.” 

One of Girdlestone’s current projects is a news series on the campaign’s Instagram account, highlighting local, national and international stories and the impact they have on us. 

“Our main goal of this is to turn the incredibly overwhelming news into palpable, easy to understand quick hits while still being informative,” Girdlestone said. 

Girdlestone is also working on creating easily understandable and accessible ways for the student body to understand legal concepts like FERPA and tenancy laws for renters.

Rank, on the other hand, is focused on a new project with Lynn Braun, Director of the Counseling Center, called “What’s Going On?” 

Rank described this project as a “weekly opportunity for students as well as faculty and staff to participate in a discussion about current events.” This event is an open Q&A session, not a panel discussion or lecture. 

Rank said, “We want people to bring their questions about what has happened during the last week—those questions might be specific, for example, about how a particular policy is being interpreted by SUNY Oswego, or general, for example, how do tariffs work?” 

Rank was inspired to start this new project because she hopes to “give folks a space to ask questions as they come up.” Rank and Braun will work together as “two kinds of ‘experts’”, helping students understand the politics and work through feelings of uncertainty or anxiety.

“Whether you agree or disagree with specific policy changes, it is hard to deny that the political landscape is changing really quickly these days,” Rank said.

Since Trump’s inauguration on January 20, his administration has made significant moves, quickly moving to reverse DEI initiatives, impose universal tariffs on imports, launch heavy austerity measures through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and increase efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. 

Business leaders say that these changes, specifically the implementation of tariffs, may affect New York families, farms and factories, leading to increased prices of materials and energy.

Rank says the new “What’s Going On” sessions will occur every week for the rest of the semester, but with different dates and times each week. 

Moving forward, Vote Oswego is working on setting up their new office in Park Hall, creating materials for orientation next semester and planning content for the fall 2025 local elections. 

“We’re working to put together new educational materials – including a lot of short videos—so we’ll have great resources we can direct students to,” Rank said.

Girdlestone emphasized Vote Oswego’s goal to strengthen their presence on campus regardless of if there is a national election, becoming an educational tool for all students and expanding civil literacy and engagement on campus.

“I personally wanted to get involved with Vote Oswego because I have always been interested in politics and as a political science student I think it is incredibly important for everyone to know how politics impact aspects of our everyday lives,” Girdlestone said. 

While applications for next semester’s internships with Vote Oswego have closed, the campaign will recruit interested volunteers for its work next semester and is beginning to host office hours. 

In a recent Instagram post, Vote Oswego announced that their office hours will be held in their office, Park 306, Mondays and Tuesdays from 12:45 p.m. to 4 p.m. for students to hang out, ask questions, and prepare for upcoming elections.

“We would love to hear students’ ideas and any issues they are interested in,” Girdlestone said.

Image by Terri Sewell via Wikimedia Commons