This year, Election Day will take place on Nov. 3. Not only are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives up for grabs nationwide, but this year, in Temple University’s home state of Pennsylvania, the governor is also on the ballot. Yet, according to our academic calendar, students will be expected to be in classes as normal on the 3rd, or risk possibly missing out on attendance credit, assignments, or other course requirements. Â
While Temple gives students off for wellness days, study days, and select holidays, Election Day does not make the cut – and hasn’t in recent history. But Temple is not unique in this respect: according to 2024 data, of the 3,896 colleges and universities in the United States, approximately 86 of them give students off for Election Day. Temple’s Philadelphia-area peers the University of Pennsylvania, Saint Joseph’s University, La Salle University, and Villanova University all indicate on their academic calendars that classes will be held as usual. As an interesting outlier, Drexel University began cancelling classes for Election Day in 2024, and students will have off again this year for the 2026 election. Even more interestingly, in March 2024, when this change was announced, the President of Drexel University was none other than Temple’s own President John Fry. Â
As dictated by federal statute, in the United States, Election Day always takes place on a Tuesday. To be exact, “the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years.” This regularity means that, each cycle, Election Day will fall on a weekday, making it inevitable that students will have conflicts with their class schedules or other academic responsibilities.Â
In the past, mail-in voting has provided an excellent alternative for students that were not able to go home to vote. Understandably, many students cannot make it back to the county in which they are registered in one day and will have to continue to rely on alternative methods of voting. However, I think it is important to note that these methods – while still important options – have been under serious attack recently by the Trump administration. Â
President Trump has repeatedly referred to mail-in voting as fraudulent, questioning the validity of mail-in ballots and making efforts to limit access for voters—even though it has been confirmed that he mails in his own votes. Even outside of these very real risks, sometimes it’s just more comfortable to see and know that your vote has been received. Whether due to increasing controversy and restrictions around the method or just for their own personal comfort, students who are able may understandably just prefer to vote in-person. And, with something as crucial as democratic participation, we should get to be a little picky. Â
So how would a day off impact student voting? According to Temple’s own recent enrollment data, 62% of students were in-state as of Fall 2025. While exact statistics on the other 38% of students were not provided, I can say that anecdotal evidence suggests that a fair proportion are from nearby states, such as New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. At Temple, we all know way too many people from New Jersey.Â
Thankfully, Philadelphia is a hub of transportation. Pennsylvania is a large state, but access to services like Amtrak, SEPTA, and bus lines makes travel throughout the state accessible. Amtrak’s Keystone Service line alone has stops such as Harrisburg, Lancaster, Downingtown, Trenton, Newark, and New York City. The whole line is less than four hours end-to-end, meaning any journey out of Philadelphia will be even shorter. There’s also SEPTA’s Regional Rail, which allows for easy and convenient travel throughout the greater Philadelphia region directly out of Temple’s station over on West Berks St. Bus travel is a great option as well, with options such as Greyhound, Flixbus, and Peter Pan traveling to any number of locations. If you really live further out, and you’re feeling extra democratic, Regional Rail even goes directly to Philadelphia International Airport—maybe more than a day trip, but worth noting, nonetheless.Â
Giving students Election Day off would allow non-Philadelphian students within travelling distance the entire day to coordinate transportation, get where they need to be, cast that ballot, and maybe even have time to grab a celebratory meal with friends or friends from home before coming back to campus. Travel can be annoying and stressful, but there’s a huge difference in willingness to consider it when you’re not tired or rushed from the day’s classes. For some students, a day off may be the very thing that makes the journey possible at all. Some students live further out and need more time for travel. Other students may have stacked Tuesdays, meaning their decision to vote in-person results in not one course absence but two or three. Others may have their Tuesday courseload spread out more throughout the day, meaning even a more local trip would require choosing what to miss. Â
It’s not fair to ask students to sacrifice their course performance for their right to vote how they choose. While many professors might be understanding when students explain their situation, there shouldn’t have to be any “what ifs.” What if I lose credit on my participation? What if I can’t move this presentation? This exam? There needs to be a standard expectation in order to protect all students who wish to vote and their grades. Because, even if the potential deduction for missing a class is a tiny 1% or even a 0.0001%, there should not be the risk of any sort of penalization against students who simply wish to exercise their constitutional right to vote.Â
Also, being a state school, Temple has additional incentive to care about state and local elections. When your institution relies heavily on the results of such elections, it makes sense to do everything possible to encourage the very students that benefit from state funding to participate. With the majority of Temple students being PA state residents, their votes are directly impacting not only their own abilities to succeed, but the school’s overall. Â
Especially now, with increasing concern that the justness of U.S. democratic system is under threat, there is no excuse for institutions of higher education like Temple to stand in the way of students’ democratic participation. It doesn’t even matter so much about the degree— it matters that there is a barrier that exists. When can go back and forth about the numbers and speculate how many students would use the day off to go home and vote versus how many would use the day off to sleep in or rewatch Parks & Recreation, but in my opinion, it doesn’t matter. What matters most is the idea that there is even the slimmest possibility of students being forced to choose between going to the polls and their education. And, to me, that’s simply unacceptable. Difficulty creates disinterest, and, with a demographic that’s already statistically less likely to show up, the mere minor inconvenience of a normal day of coursework could be the deciding factor between participation or a nap after class.Â
I love Temple, and I’m proud to attend an institution that prides itself on progress, but I find this shortcoming contradictory to the messaging our university is so proud of. Temple cares about students being involved with their communities and feeling empowered to take control of their own futures. So why limit our say in the world we are presumably learning to create change in?Â
In describing its mission, Temple lists three words: “Opportunity. Engagement. Discovery.” In line with that mission, Temple has an obligation to give students the opportunity to engage in democracy, however they may choose to exercise that right. We might just discover the impact to be far greater than ever expected. Â
If all of that isn’t enough, let me remind you: Drexel can’t beat us at basketball. Don’t let them beat us at this.