Roar the Vote encourages hundreds of Tigers to become electorates

When it comes to voting, many college students can have questions such as how to register, where to register, and should you vote where you live or go to school?

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Alex Hlaing/RIT

Julien Philippe-Auguste, a first-year student from Baltimore, stopped by the Roar the Vote table recently and requested information to receive an absentee ballot.

Roar the Vote, an RIT initiative that helps students register to vote and better understand the voting process, is a non-partisan effort led by RIT’s Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, as well as RIT’s Office of Government and Community Relations. Several information tables have been set up around campus this semester, allowing students walking by to fill out a voter registration form, ask how absentee ballot deadlines from each state can be obtained, when they are due, and more.

Julien Philippe-Auguste, a first-year civil engineering technology major from Baltimore, stopped by the Roar the Vote table recently and requested information to receive an absentee ballot.

“It’s important for me to participate in the voting process because it’s my civic duty,” he said. “I am a second-generation American, so my family stresses the importance of my voice and my vote.”

He fondly recalls standing alongside his mother every time she voted in a presidential election.

“I knew from a young age the affiliations my family chose, why, and how my mom prioritized voting,” he said. “She made an effort to make it important to me and my siblings so it would always be a family trip.”

Amaiya Swift, a first-year School of Individualized Study student from Middletown, N.Y., said her mother had just asked if she was all set to vote, so she stopped at the table to find out how to get a ballot. She was also given an envelope and stamps to return it when it was completed.

“Voting is very important. Politics affect everyone,” Swift said. “You must be involved if you want different outcomes.”

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Alex Hlaing/RIT

Amaiya Swift, a first-year student from Middletown, N.Y., received an envelope and postage stamps to return her absentee ballot after visiting Roar the Vote volunteers.

Roar the Vote began in 2016 in response to low voter turnout rates. The numbers of participating RIT students soared for the 2020 election, when voting rates increased by 16.7 percent from 2016, outpacing many peer institutions. Roughly 70 percent of RIT students who were eligible to vote were registered in the 2020 election, with 53 percent of eligible students voting.

In 2020, RIT President David Munson signed an “ALL IN” commitment to the Campus Democracy Challenge, agreeing that colleges have a responsibility to prepare students to become engaged participants in our democracy, including to exercise the right and duty to register and to vote. Colleges in the challenge, including RIT, scheduled events to increase nonpartisan student civic learning, political engagement, and voter participation.

Since then, RIT has received multiple designations from the organization, including having highly established action plans in 2022 and 2024.

Grace Carlic, who leads the Roar the Vote initiative, said since July, more than 500 RIT students have begun the voter registration process through RIT’s voter registration platform, TurboVote.

Roar the Vote also helps students hone their leadership, advocacy, and civic engagement skills. Onvida Serixay, a third-year computer engineering major from Buffalo, N.Y., is part of the Roar the Vote’s Voter Advocacy Network and helps educate students about the voting process.

“I believe that it is important that RIT students register to vote as they can make an impact wherever they are voting from,” Serixay said. “This participation is crucial in today’s world as we continue to grow as a global community.”

Fellow volunteer Dita Cappers, a fourth-year applied mathematics major from Syracuse, N.Y., agreed.

“Voting is important because it’s a chance to exercise a right that many people in the past fought really hard for, and it’s an opportunity to make an impact and act on the issues that are important to you with very little effort,” Cappers said. “There really is no downside to voting. For a lot of us, this is the first presidential election we’ve been able to vote in. I know I’m really excited to send my ballot in, and I hope I can create that same excitement in other students with my volunteer efforts.”

Any RIT student who would like to register to vote, check their registration, pledge to register or receive reminders to vote, should go to the TurboVote link.