Mayoral Candidate Andrew Yang Hosts Student Town Hall

New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang hosted an hour-long virtual town hall through Zoom, opened for all NYC high school students on February 24. The Yang campaign hosted the panel to engage with NYC youth and inform students about Yang’s platform. Student representatives from eight high schools across the city, including Stuyvesant, who were selected through teacher recommendations or volunteers from Yang’s campaign, voiced their questions and concerns to Yang about his political campaign. The representatives were either selected through teacher recommendations or were volunteers chosen by Yang’s campaign. The panel was moderated by Hilary Kinney, a member of the Advance Team of the Yang campaign.

Yang initially posted a tweet, encouraging students to invite him to speak at their respective schools. In response, Sophomore Caucus Chief Advisor Alexander Lopez reached out, hoping that Yang would come and speak to Stuyvesant students. “I thought it was a long-shot, but after getting those contacts [and] exploring my network, I was able to get them, and that was really exciting,” Lopez said.

The webinar was originally intended for just Stuyvesant students, but the NYC Department of Education does not permit the use or access of school buildings by individual candidates for elective offices or organizations associated with such candidates. Consequently, the DOE redesigned the event and the webinar was opened to all NYC students. “This town hall was intended to be a pilot, for them to see how many people would show up. That’s why they got a wider range of participants,” Lopez said.

Given the restraints, the town hall was adjusted accordingly to meet DOE regulations. Both the Student Union (SU) and Sophomore Caucus were involved with Lopez in the event planning process. “Due to the DOE regulations, the Student Union [...] wanted to turn it into a mayoral forum with every single one of the mayoral candidates, because that was the only way we could have one candidate speak at our school—if we invited everybody else, “ Lopez said. “But at that point, we only had two weeks to plan, so the Sophomore Caucus and I picked it up from there and tried to promote it as much as possible after we realized that it was going to be turned into a town hall with multiple high schools.”

Because the webinar was specifically aimed toward high school students, NYC high schoolers were able to bring up many student-specific concerns, such as inequalities in specialized high school enrollment, and his plan to work toward resolving it. Yang stated that socioeconomic factors play a large role in NYC schools, particularly with the elitism of specialized high schools in determining admission through the sole factor of the SHSAT score.

Another concern that was discussed was the possibility of reopening school. Yang expressed that authorities should be putting in more effort to reopen schools based on the number of students falling behind in online learning, especially the younger students. He furthered that everyone should be vaccinated before reopening and provided personal protective equipment. “I enjoyed the way that [Yang] emphasized putting resources into various communities and acknowledged the extent COVID-19 has affected our communities,” sophomore Victoria Solodkova said in an e-mail interview. “[However,] I do wish that [Yang] spoke a little more extensively on specific ways he plans on funding these projects and how these resources will be integrated into [said] communities.”

Representatives also stated concerns about how Yang will keep NYC safe amidst the recent rise of racially-motivated attacks against Asians. As an Asian American himself, Yang has a personal connection with the Asian American community and claims to invest in police officers and resources specifically for the Asian community, as well as resources to combat xenophobia and racism.

Many participants and student panelists expressed excitement at Yang’s plans to engage with NYC’s Asian American community. “Stuyvesant is over 70 percent Asian, and there’s a large Asian community, but unfortunately [...] [the Asian] population in NYC is not active in elections,” Lopez said. “We’re 14 percent of New York’s population, and yet a lot of us do not vote. Being able to talk to a political candidate [...] who can improve or activate the electorate of the youth, as well as the Asian community, and improve our livelihoods is really exciting, regardless of political affiliation.”

However, other participants felt that not all questions and concerns could be answered due to the constricted time frame of the webinar. “It was kind of unfortunate that there wasn’t enough time in the webinar for a Q & A segment because I feel like that would’ve allowed the town hall to be a more interactive experience,” Solodkova said. “There were questions in the chat from attendees that Yang expressed he wanted to take a look at, but the webinar seemed to end prematurely and he never got the opportunity to address questions outside of those from the pre-selected student representatives,”

Others found the webinar’s structure and timeframe to be appropriate. “There was a lot he didn't cover solely from the fact that there are so many issues that could be discussed in NYC,” junior Yaqin Rahman said. “Since this was a high school seminar [...] he was there to listen to the [specific] concerns students have and to respond to those concerns with solutions.”

As Lopez believes in the impact that youth involvement can have in elections, Yang’s inclusion of the youth resonated with him. “[A] takeaway that I got, with specifically Andrew Yang, is that they always emphasize youth,” he said. “When we get involved, whether it’s telling our parents, or telling seniors to vote, we’re getting more involved in the process of politics, but not just politics, but the community as well, and we can create tangible change.”

Many attendees echoed their enthusiasm for Yang’s attention to addressing the youth’s questions and concerns. “It was really cool how he took the time to come speak to us and really focus on the youth. An aspect of the town hall that really stood out to me was the way he encouraged the youth to be more involved with affairs and non-profit organizations around NYC,” Solodkova said.

Rahman added, “He is someone who is understanding and willing to listen to the people, which [would] definitely be a change of pace to the previous mayors.”

Moving forward, the Yang campaign plans to continue hosting more town halls for high school students and hopes to expand by hosting specific town halls directed toward groups of students. “There’ll be more specific town halls in addition to broader ones like the town hall just held [...] [and town halls with] a broader array of panelists, because a majority of [the student panelists] came from very high-performing schools, and they want to diversify as much as possible,” Lopez said.