Iowa State currently holds regularly scheduled classes on the day of elections each November, alongside the vast majority of other colleges.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the United States has 3,921 degree-granting postsecondary institutions. Approximately 115, or 2.9%, of those colleges and universities cancel classes on Election Day.

However, canceling classes or moving to remote instruction is slowly becoming a growing trend for Election Day in the United States.

In February, one member of the Faculty Senate, Karen Kedrowski, gave the first reading on a resolution to support student voting in the 2024 election by altering how courses are delivered on Election Day. Kedrowksi, a professor of political science and director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, also called for professors to excuse tardiness and absences from students who miss class to vote.

According to previous reporting from The Daily, the resolution was approved prior to the 2022 elections and received pushback from faculty at their February Senate meeting when it was reintroduced. Some senators shared concerns about poorly preparing students for a life of civic responsibility and time management. 

Rahul Parsa, Iowa State’s Faculty Senate president, provided a comment in an email statement to the Daily.

“People in the real world make plans to vote. If we are preparing our students for the real world, then we should encourage them to plan ahead to vote. There are plenty of early voting options and also absentee ballot options. Students should make themselves aware of those. I encouraged the student body leadership to encourage and inform students about voting. Given all this, I do not see a reason to cancel classes,” Parsa stated in the email.

However, Kedrowski said turnout rates are higher among countries that deem their election day a holiday. She also said holding class on an election day as another barrier to voting.

“Countries that have election day as a holiday have higher voter turnout rates,” Kedrowski said. “As for college students, we know that holding a class on election day is a barrier to student voting. Especially if students need to travel some distance to their polling places or if they are also balancing work, parenting and other responsibilities in addition to attending class and finding time to vote.”

Rob Schweers, the director of communications for the Provost’s office, said students should instead plan ahead and vote early if it is a barrier.

“Students are encouraged to plan ahead and make time in their schedule to vote on Election Day, or to vote early if that is more convenient,” Schweers said. “Canceling classes, particularly for classes that may only meet once a week, would result in faculty either removing content from their courses to account for one less class session, or compressing the same amount of material into fewer sessions.”

States like Iowa have same-day registration, meaning voters can register first and then vote, which could possibly result in longer wait times. 

“So that means it can take more time to vote, which can be difficult with classes, work and other responsibilities,” Kedrowski said. “For many disciplines, moving to online learning for a day would not be a major hardship. However, for classes that have some sort of hands-on learning, like science labs, moving to online learning could be a hardship.”

Election Day is Tuesday, and Iowans can find their polling place here. The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

To view a local sample ballot, visit Story County’s website.