Students Respond Enthusiastically To Questions About Current Issues By Leslie Moonshine
Our two Voter Registration Teams still visit Sierra College campus regularly, but our focus in this off-election year is less on registration and more on engagement. As a conversation starter, we use our signature surveys that focus on current events or actions of the Trump administration. Our ultimate goal is to get these young voters to the polls in 2026. The immediate goal, before voter registration, is to get students engaged in understanding what is at stake.
Our weekly conversations and connections with students are pivotal to the work AADC does at Sierra. We want to make sure these young voters stay tuned in to what is happening in the political sphere. We want them to have a firm understanding of how politics actually affects their lives. We want to help them stay engaged locally and nationally. And then, come election time, they will be fired up and ready to cast their vote!
Survey Highlights
The Tuesday team, headed by Robert Sherriff, visited campus only once in March due to Spring Break. Their survey, titled Amending the Amendments, asked students about the possibilities of amending fundamental rights, such as free speech, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, and birthright citizenship.
The survey revealed that a majority of students (35) favor amending the right to bear arms (2nd Amendment), while 12 students opposed any changes and felt funding mental health initiatives was needed instead. Regarding the right to citizenship granted by the14th Amendment, the majority felt no changes are needed, but 9 favored denying birthright citizenship to children born in the US to undocumented parents.
The Wednesday team, headed by Gail Bartlow, conducted three surveys this month. The first centered on Ukraine, shortly after the notorious Trump/Vance & Zelenskyy meeting in the Oval Office. All but 8 of the 76 students responding either saw, read, or heard about the meeting. Student responses also show that the majority are very concerned about Trump’s overtures to Vladimir Putin, and they hold a negative view of Putin. (Full disclosure: this survey was particularly popular with the Ukrainian students on campus and many came to give their input.)
In another survey, Fired by DOGE, students were directed to pick which 3 mass firings by Musk, Trump, and DOGE concerned them the most. Their choices included cuts at the Department of Education, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Interior Department (specifically firings at the National Parks), Veterans’ Affairs, Health and Human Services, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). Not surprisingly, the area of greatest concern was the Department of Education (57 responses), followed by cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services (46 responses).
Since March is Women’s History Month, our final survey centered on four key issues for American women today: Equal pay, abortion rights, representation in Congress, and the SAFE Act, which could affect women’s access to voting. Rather than asking them to choose a single issue, we asked them to rank the four items from “Most important” (#1) to “least important” (#4). Concerns over abortion bans in many states and the loss of the right to a safe, legal abortion ranked as the #1 issue for 47 students (of approximately 63 participants). Forty students ranked disparities in pay as either their #1 or #2 concern.
Though we have registered only a few students this term, we are witnessing a burst of interest in our surveys. Often a small crowd gathers around our survey which, in turn, attracts the interest of other students who come over to see what’s happening! We love when students engage in serious discussion on the issues — both with us and with each other! Several have expressed interest in taking action, from downloading 5 Calls, to contacting Kevin Kiley, to joining a protest. The pocket constitutions on our table are very popular as students seek to know more about their rights and what they can do to be civically engaged. Our AADC Voter Registration teams can help them do exactly that.
