Pace’s Center for Community Action and Research (CCAR) is responsible for encouraging hundreds of students per year on the University’s NYC and Pleasantville campuses to get involved in nonpartisan community outreach and volunteerism. They work with many partner student voting organizations across the nation. Lately, CCAR has been taking the time to register as many people as possible before the registration deadline of Oct. 25 for this November’s election.
Many University students have already been registered to vote on their own, but many haven’t– they sometimes need a push out to the polls. CCAR’s goal is to get students out to the voting booth by nonpartisan candidate education on the national level and more importantly the local level on the officials who will affect the day to day at the University. CCAR’s Assistant Director Erin Mysogland explained how tracking who’s registered to vote through them can best assist in getting as many people out to vote as possible.
“We keep track of how many people we’ve registered and we do that every year,” Mysogland said.
One Pace Plaza’s student center will continue to be a registered polling site through the Board of Elections for the NYC mayoral election on Tuesday, Nov. 4 for the second year in a row. It will open to any University student registered to vote with their dorm address or any community member who lives locally, locals accounting for two-thirds of voters at the University’s polling site, according to CCAR. CCAR can also help students who live off campus locate their designated polling site: all students are welcome to email questions to [email protected] or visit the CCAR office on the 4th floor of 41 Park Row.
CCAR has hosted multiple tabling events in One Pace Plaza this semester, focusing on registering as many students to vote as possible. On Friday, Oct. 3, CCAR partnered with the Pace LGBTQA+ Center. The center is particularly focused on increasing LGBTQA+ students participation in civics, including (but not limited to) voting, advocacy, activism and volunteering, according to Mysogland.
Dr. Jimmy Luckman, the director at the LGBTQA+ Center, cited a rise of anti gay and anti trans rhetoric as the driving reason to partner with CCAR for the Oct. 3 civic engagement event. Luckman also discussed the need to focus on local communities to help build a better national community.
CCAR has been a University mainstay since 1998, located within Dyson Arts and Sciences. Prior to 2015, CCAR focused more on civic engagement courses through avenues of community-based learning, with a heavy emphasis on local community volunteerism.
“Previously, it was kind of more so [only during] presidential election years and things like that,” Mysogland stated, reiterating that CCAR didn’t always focus on voter registration. But, since the first Trump administration, they’ve noticed an increased interest in University students and involvement with politics, so pivoting to voter registration makes a lot of sense for them (CCAR).
Volunteerism plays a major role in everything CCAR does, as they have relationships with over 60 different advocacy organizations. The office is also able to help students who need community service hours find the right non profit for them that addresses what each student is passionate about.
For example, Toby Parks is CCAR’s Andrew Goodman Foundation ambassador: the foundation describes themselves on their website as “engaged citizens who ensure a just democracy and sustainable future.” The Andrew Goodman Foundation dates back to the civil rights era organisation of young people who advocate for inclusive voting and the University has been a partner institution since 2016. CCAR also has deep ties to SAGE Serves, some years even having 50+ student volunteers helping with LGBTQIA+ community outreach.
Voter registration ends Oct. 25 in the state of New York and Oct. 25 through Nov. 2 constitute early voting days. If you are interested in voting locally or in New York City, CCAR is able to assist with voting registration based on the needs of each student. The University’s student center will be a voting location on Election Day, which is Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.
