Resources for Faculty, Advisors, and Student Affairs Professionals

Facilitating Post-Election Conversations with Students
Thursday, October 29, from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
VT Engage created a workshop that will focus on providing tools and resources to engage in civic discussions with students. While the resources can be useful for any civics discussion, there will be a specific focus on the 2020 election. Register here.


Learn more about Preparing to Teach About the 2020 Election (and After) (from the Michigan Center for Research on Teaching and Learning).

Resources and tools on encouraging viewpoint diversity and reducing polarization are also available from the Heterodox Academy.

Resources for Civic Engagement 

Shuttle Service for Early Voting
If you are registered to vote in Montgomery County, VT Engage is offering a free shuttle service to help students and employees vote early. The shuttles go to the Uptown Christiansburg Mall, one of the county’s two early vote locations. Shuttles will be offered at various times from Monday to Saturday until early voting ends on Saturday, October 31. Each trip is estimated to be around 40 minutes (time includes a roundtrip ride to Christiansburg and voting.) Sign up for a timeslot here.  

The Race 2020: A Livestreamed Interactive Performance
October 30 to November 2
Reflection and productive conversation on the nature of leadership and state of our democracy seem all the more urgent in these times. The School of Performing Arts is tackling this head on as one of the national hosts of “The Race 2020,” which will be presented across the nation in coming weeks as part of a festival of performances leading up to the presidential election.

The interactive performance combines spectacle and collaborative conversation to investigate the state of our democracy. The production blends performance, call and response, question and answer, dance, and karaoke into a participatory, highly choreographed, and at times, improvised exploration. Register here.

Finding Common Ground: Reflecting and Connecting After the 2020 Election
Wednesday, November 4, noon to 1:30 p.m.
2020 has been a tumultuous year culminating in a contentious presidential election. On the day after the election, the Office for Inclusion and Diversity and the Division for Student Affairs invite the VIrginia Tech community to join them in pausing and asking: Now what? The discussion will not include how anyone voted; instead, it will reflect on the important issues facing all of us and how we can connect around these issues. The discussion will be livestreamed from the InclusiveVT YouTube Channel.

Submitted by Dean Laura Belmonte on behalf of the Office for Inclusion and Diversity