Tuesday, 20 September 2022

#noiandiamoavotare, an initiative to encourage youth to vote

All classes are suspended on 26 September

Versione stampabile

No teaching activities will take place at the University of Trento on Monday 26 September to encourage students to participate in the election. The decision was confirmed yesterday by the Council of Directors.

There will be no classes on Monday 26 September to help students who will go home to vote: the University of Trento made the decision after the Council of Directors gave its positive opinion yesterday. 

Departments and Centres will decide how to reschedule the cancelled classes. The academic and student communities were informed today by the Rector by email. 

"The suspension of teaching activities for an entire day will probably create some logistical and organizational difficulties - Rector Flavio Deflorian said – because the academic calendar has been established some time ago and the lack of spaces makes it difficult to reorganize the classes. In this moment, however, we had to make a stand. Voting and participating in the election is important."

"One of the objectives of the University is to train responsible citizens. Generations of young people who are the citizens of today and will be the citizens of tomorrow attend university. That is why we feel it is our responsibility to invite them to take part in the election of 25 September. We are concerned by the fact that young people are so reluctant to participate in the voting process, and politicians should be even more concerned. This does not mean, in my opinion, that they are not interested: young people care and are clearly interested in many current issues, from civil rights to the environment for example, and we can see it in the many public events that they organize. There is rather a lack of confidence in the election process as an instrument. To them, it does not seem to be effective. At the moment, however, it is the only instrument we have to exercise popular sovereignty."

In these elections, for the first time, young people aged 18 will be able to vote to elect their representatives in the Parliament and Senate.

"That is why we have decided to facilitate them as much as possible – the rector pointed out – by suspending classes and launching a campaign on the importance of voting."

The #noiandiamoavotare campaign will be launched tomorrow on social media and in the departments and centres of the University. The assumption behind the initiative is that the diversity of views is a value."

"The University is a pluralistic community where differences are a strength, not a problem," explained Deflorian.

"Differences already exist, in the background of people, in the subjects they study, in their ideas and their political orientations. As a university, we are part of society where different points of view exist and are represented. Discussion and participation must be encouraged, not feared. Starting with the instrument of the vote."

Attached is an image of the #noiandamoavotare campaign – exclusively in online format – which will be launched on the UniTrento website, on the University's social channels and on the screens placed in the various facilities of the University in Trento and Rovereto.