By Kyle Kern Staff Writer
Election season is upon us. Many people find themselves so caught up in the presidential election that the elections for other offices are being obstructed from view, but for one Susquehanna professor the election for the 85th district of Pennsylvania is the center of attention.
David Heayn, adjunct faculty of history, is running as a write-in candidate for the 85th district, facing off against incumbent Republican Rep. Fred Keller.
Heayn is challenging Keller with a platform of improving education. According to Heayn, one of the main motivations inciting the bid for office was the birth of his son six months ago. He wants to focus on amending the education system.
Heayn said, “I find that many educators get into [politics] not necessarily out of money and not for some sort of level of prestige; we actually care about the people we educate.”
Heayn said that students should be involved, no matter the ideological viewpoints or personal beliefs.
He also believes that students should register to vote in Pennsylvania. “You live here; this is your home for the next four years,” Heayn added.
While support is nice, he mainly wants students and people in general to realize one thing: local elections matter as much as the presidential election matters.
To organize and to gain support in the community, Heayn enlisted the help of a few student volunteers. Two of them, sophomores Carly Malamud and Emma Kirbis, have been students in classes taught by Heayn.
They both believe that working on a political campaign has supported their undergraduate education, while also giving them an opportunity to work on an event in a real world setting.
Malamud, an accounting major on a pre-law track, said she has always had an interest in politics, but it was not until Heayn asked her to work on his campaign that she became fully immersed in the campaigning process.
Malamud works with Heayn’s campaign finances. She deals with the donations from supporters and endorsements.
This work gives her a look at the legal aspects of campaign finances and prepares her for law school. She is not currently receiving academic credit for her work with the campaign, but she is looking to begin the work to start an internship.
Kirbis, a communications and business administration double-major, was asked to join the campaign to help out with the event management. She communicates with various organizations and individuals to organize campaign events and interviews.
The engagements that she helps set up within the campaign may seem like a huge jump for a sophomore in college, but Kirbis has been working as the event coordinator intern for the Office of the President at Susquehanna. This position supports the Office of the President with presidential events on Pine Lawn throughout the year.
Kirbis is also receiving academic credit through an internship with the Heayn campaign. Her advisor, Michele DeMary, associate professor of political science and pre-law advisor, has meetings with Kirbis to discuss not only her experiences but also to give her feedback.
DeMary also assigns journals and a research project that is due at the end of the internship. Kirbis said that working for a campaign gives her “a well-rounded view” of the political process and the entire workshop of a campaign.
The two students said they have learned that the students on campus seem to be numb to the election process. Malamud said, “Millennials in our age group, and mostly as a whole, have almost had the notion engrained in our brains that we should vote for a major [political] party, because our vote doesn’t matter.”
This notion is driving people away from researching candidates and looking past party lines. On campus and in the community, Heayn’s campaign has been advocating for residents and students to register to vote and research the candidates for the local elections along with the presidential election.
Malamud and Kirbis encourage students to register to vote in the 85th district in order for their voices to be heard in the area, because this is where the students of Susquehanna will be living for four years.