Dr. Alton Banks, a chemistry professor, has delegated an assignment for his Chemistry 100 class for non-science majors where students have the option of voting in today’s election.

However, according to some of his students, the assignment used to be a requirement.

Jessica Putney, a freshman in political science and one of Banks’ students, said the original assignment was that students had to go out and vote in today’s elections or they would receive zeros for the assignment.

According to Putney, the assignment is “ridiculous” because an instructor should never require students to vote, especially a science professor. She said at first, students thought it was an extra credit assignment.

“Do you really think 50 percent of those kids know who David Price is?” she said. “I’ll vote because I know who I’m voting for. I don’t agree with what he’s doing because people are going to go out there and vote, and not know who they are voting for.”

Banks, who is also the director of the faculty center for teaching and learning, explained the assignment consisted of three options for students. They could either vote, volunteer to work at the polls or write a paper describing two chemists who had been scientifically and politically active.

According to Banks, the whole purpose of the assignment was to show the role of chemistry in society as the class title indicates.

“One way that people contribute to a republic is to vote,” Banks said.

He said this is a chance for students as citizens to tell their representatives what they want.

“There’s a lot of people who participated in the voting process and it’s my concern with a declining percentage of people voting,” he said. “That means that we are, in essence, implicitly surrendering the privilege that our republic has worked so hard to secure, and so I figure if you start voting in college, then maybe you will continue voting.”

Banks said he allowed students to choose from the other two options in case they are international students or are just too young to vote.

Putney said Banks only changed this requirement once students began protesting the voting requirement, and said he saved himself by doing so.

However, Banks said this is the first year students have expressed disagreement toward the assignment and the option of volunteering at the polls has always been a part of it.

Banks said he added the paper as an option “when it was apparent there were people who were philosophically opposed [to voting].”

The assignment, said Banks, was meant to encourage students to practice their constitutional right to vote and would not violate their rights.

“Part of being a member of society is participating in things in society that can affect our world,” he said.

Cindy Lawler, a freshman in English, also disagreed with the requirement even though she planned to vote before she knew about the assignment.

Although the class is “chemistry in society,” Lawler said it is a good idea to try to get people to vote, but not to make it a requirement because it should be a student’s right to make a decision on whether to head to the polls or not.

“I know being a college student myself, people are lazy and they’re just going to find the easy way out, especially since they were mad about being forced to vote anyway,” she said.

Lawler said despite the fact that there are other options to the assignment, the options are not fair because the third option is to write a six-page paper.

“My problem with this was that people that were not informed to vote, vote just to vote for a grade,” she said.

Banks said although he received negative input about the assignment, he also received positive input, as well.

“I had a conversation in my office yesterday with a student who’s a political science major and she plans to go into politics,” he said. “She thinks it was a great idea.”

According to Banks, he has been carrying out this assignment for three years, ever since he started teaching the CH 100 class, and this is the first year he has received opposition to it.

“This homework assignment, which is one of many homework assignments I give, is to simply say — from the perspective of a voter — to say what you think,” he said.