With the youth seemingly poised to live up to expectations of political participation on an unprecedented scale, many professors are tailoring lesson plans and rearranging their schedules today to accommodate students who are not only voting, but campaigning for the first time ever.

While some professors and graduate student instructors are cancelling classes altogether, others are rescheduling papers, exams and assignments to allow students to be engaged in the voting process on Election Day.

Political science lecturer Amy Gurowitz rescheduled her midterm in the Introduction to International Relations class at the request of students who would be campaigning today.

"I had originally scheduled the midterm for that day, not realizing it was on Election Day when I did it, but I moved it because I had a number of requests from students who wanted to work on campaigns in other states," she said.

Many students were not aware classes would be cancelled today, but said they would campaign in battleground states regardless.

"I don't think of it as skipping class so much as being civically engaged," said ASUC President Roxanne Winston, who is campaigning in Nevada for Sen. Barack Obama with other UC Berkeley students.

In Political Science 104, "Political Parties," graduate student instructor Peter Ryan said students are not just encouraged to get involved in the political process by voting or volunteering tomorrow-involvement is a class requirement.

"I know that all of our students will be focused on the election, not just because they are a very politically motivated group, but because they will have to complete case studies of key Senate and U.S. House races shortly," Ryan said.

Many professors said they plan to use the opportunity to talk about their subject material in the context of the presidential race.

Public policy professor Daniel Kammen and energy advisor to Obama will be teaching an energy and society class this afternoon as results from East Coast states become available.

"We'll be in class at 3 o'clock, so as the early states get called … we'll stop and spend a few minutes talking about it, especially because the class is topics in environmental justice and race, so it's actually kind of appropriate," Kammen said.

Other professors said their classes are already so grounded in current events that it is unnecessary to make any special plans for Election Day.

"Everything in my class is relevant- more so than in most classes, since my emphasis is on the things that really matter," professor Richard Muller, who teaches the class Physics for Future Presidents, said in an e-mail.

But not all students will be skipping class today. Many stressed that they did not need to skip class in order to vote and remain politically active.

"I am going to go to class because I have a midterm in that class on Thursday," said junior Nicole Higashiyama.

Tags: LOCAL ELECTIONS 2008, NATIONAL ELECTIONS 2008