By: Diane Stirling
(315) 443-8975

As Americans go to the polls all over the U.S. to pick their next president today, “Amercian” citizens also will vote in their first presidential election on the Syracuse University campus.

“Amercia” is the virtual community created for the School of Information Studies (iSchool) class where students have been conducting campaign efforts, via social media tactics, all semester. Their real-life and real-time campaign efforts are an experiential learning and social media practicum for student teams in the new course, “Social Media in the 2012 Election,” more commonly known by its Twitter hashtag, #ElectionClass.

The #ElectionClass voting process is as follows:

  • The NEXIS lab, 339 Hinds Hall, is the designated polling place
  • Voting will take place only from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Polls will close at 7:00 p.m. and the winner of the election will be announced sometime before 9:00 p.m.

  • Voting must be completed in person.
  • Voters may be required to show an SUID card to access the polling station.
  • Voting is open to all members of Syracuse University.

To add an election atmosphere and to enhance polling activity, a variety of activities are planned at NEXIS during the day. Candidates will host campaign headquarters on the third floor of Hinds Hall, and campaign teams will staff the locations to answer voter questions and speak to class media members and regional news media.

Class candidates for president of Amercia are:

Robert Lawrence(R); as portrayed by Bob O’Brien, an iSchool Information Management & Technology student (http://www.robertlawrence2012.com/);

Matt Diaz(D); the candidate persona created by Jared Kraham, a Newhouse (broadcast journalism) and Maxwell (political science) dual-major senior (http://mattdiaz2012.com);

Carter Rhodes(I); characterized by Brad Slavin, a Newhouse (Radio-TV-Film) and iSchool (Information Systems & Management) student (http://carterrhodes.com/).

The campus community also is welcome to watch as votes are tallied for the U.S. Presidential Election at the iSchool’s Election Night Watch Party, starting at 7:00 p.m. It will be held in the Katzer Room (Hinds Hall 347), where social media trends surrounding election night, along with traditional media monitoring for both the class election and the actual election, will be underway.