UR Looks to Improve Athlete Voting with New Initiative

This fall, the Athletics Department has been working to ensure student-athletes’ voices are heard in a new way through the introduction of the Spiders Vote Initiative. The Spiders Vote Initiative is a joint effort with the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement and the Athletics Department to encourage voter registration and increase education about voting practices among student-athletes and coaches alike.

“There was a clear call to action from our student-athletes, our conferences and the NCAA that the Athletics Department should do more to ensure that student-athletes were allotted time to exercise their rights as United States citizens to vote,” LaRee Sugg, deputy athletic director for policy and sports programs, said.

To accomplish the voting initiative, the UR Athletics Department created a committee that met over the summer to establish the core goals of the initiative said Sugg. These goals include giving all student-athletes the day off from practice on Election Day, holding a voter registration drive, creation of an education plan and promoting programming about voting that is offered by UR. 

Sugg said the Spiders Vote Initiative is unique compared to similar initiatives at other schools because it focuses on education and awareness instead of only focusing on the action of voting.

“We challenged ourselves to get 100% of student-athletes registered to vote,” Sugg said. “So far, we have 14 out of 17 teams completely registered, with only a handful of student-athletes in the remaining three sports needing to register.”

Student-athletes are energized to register and become better educated about voting practices.

"Voting is such an important duty we have as individuals,” Abra Granger, a senior on the field hockey team, said. “Your vote is your power, your voice and your freedom. We want to make sure our fellow Spiders are registered and ready to go for the upcoming election. Free and fair elections are fundamental to democracy." 

Looking forward, the UR Athletics Department plans on expanding the initiative as a result of this year’s success. Using the momentum generated from this year’s response along with input from students for how to better improve the initiative will help propel its growth. 

The initiative also suggests that students become involved in the community in ways beyond just voting. The initiative encourages the growth of community outreach by informing friends and family when to register, how to create a voting plan and how to complete adequate research for candidate selection are all goals of the initiative. Becoming knowledgeable about local issues regarding social justice and race in the UR community is also highlighted as being important Sugg said

"Voting unites all students, young adults and Americans with the opportunity to create the culture that we want to see in our community and our country,” Michael Childress, a junior on the men's golf team, said. “I encourage all Spiders to research, educate themselves and vote in order to help shape pivotal decisions that will impact their future." 

A “Know Your Voting Rights” webinar was held on Oct. 19 and focused on the history of voting rights as well as voting issues that can arise and how to overcome them, Sugg said.

The NCAA has recommended colleges across the country to encourage student-athletes to register to vote and become more informed about voting practices. UR has been quick to adopt the concept and has been working on increasing voter registration among students for several months said Sugg.

Contact sports writer Brian Taylor at brian.taylor1@richmond.edu.