Cortland Votes

SUNY Cortland, as a public institution of higher learning, is charged with helping students learn key skills and dispositions that are needed for career- and civic-readiness.  Many career- and civic-readiness skills overlap.

Professional organizations and New York State, through its Seal of Readiness Program, encourage educational institutions to nurture civic readiness in their students.  SUNY Cortland does so through its mission statement, through its use of high-impact learning strategies, and through its many campus/community partnerships.

SUNY Cortland demonstrates its commitment to civic readiness by publishing

• Its National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement data
• Its All In Campus Democracy Challenge Action Plan
• The Institute for Civic Engagement's Annual Report
• The Institute for Civic Engagement's Strategic Plan

Civic readiness includes working with others for the common good, whether those individuals are working on their own, with a not-for-profit agency, in the private sector, or in government.  One way of participating in government is through voting, of course.

Through its Action Team and in partnership with other nonpartisan groups, on- and off-campus, the Institute works to register students to vote and to get students out to vote.  It also provides students and others with opportunities to learn about issues through presentations, panel discussions, and public deliberations, often in ways that connect students' academic courses to current issues.

Students can learn the up-to-date voter registration processes and forms at the Cortland County Board of Elections' website, and they can register online at Register to vote in NYS.