Engaging Campuses in the Electoral Process
July 13, 2016
The strongest democracies flourish from frequent and lively debate, but they endure when people of every background and belief find a way to set aside smaller differences in service of a greater purpose.
BARACK OBAMA, press conference, Feb. 9, 2009
In the midst of one of our most unique upcoming National Elections, there is certainly a space in higher education to provide education, resources, and access for students and community members alike to engage in the electoral process.
Inspiring Civic Participation: Becoming a Voter-Friendly Campus
NASPA is proud to partner with the Campus Vote Project to offer the inaugural Voter Friendly Campus designation opportunity to institutions interested in engaging students, faculty, administration, and community partners in the democratic process. Those that will receive the designation will be announced in March 2017.
Civic Responsibility and the Role of Higher Education
Higher education’s focus on civic engagement not only helps students to better understand their impact on those around them, it helps to create better students. Encouraging and assisting college and university students to vote will establish participatory habits that will last well beyond their collegiate experience. Incorporating democratic engagement and civic participation into campus life creates structure and stability for students as they explore what their political beliefs are, and how they would like to engage in the democratic process.
The Higher Education Act of 1965 requires institutions to distribute voter registration forms to their students. However, beyond that, instructions and guidance are vague. Therefore, NASPA continues to partner with organizations to provide avenues for campuses to better prepare students to be an engagement partner in the democratic process. These partners include: ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, American Democracy Project, College Debate 16, Campus Vote Project, The Democracy Commitment, TurboVote and Young Invincibles.
Voter Education
Covering the Basics: What’s On My Ballot, and Where do I Vote?
More often than not, individuals opt not to vote due to a lack of familiarity among issues and candidates. Thus, institutions have an opportunity to expand resources and repositories of information for community affiliates in order to help students be more prepared to vote in the National Election as well as in mid-year and local elections.
Organizations such as The Voting Information Project (VIP) work with states to provide official information to voters about where to vote and what’s on their ballots. VIP is a partnership between The Pew Charitable Trusts, Google, and State Officials to ensure that voters have the official information they need to answer basic questions like: "Where is my polling place?" What's on my ballot?" and "How do I navigate the voting process?"
Voter Registration
Creating Civic-Minded Students and the Value of Civic Education
Students who receive an education in civics are better prepared for both career and citizenship, while building a better tomorrow for us all. Nowadays, with the multitude of organizations providing students with the tools they need to register whether in state, out of state, or absentee is as easy as receiving a text message. Partners like TurboVote and the Campus Vote Project have continue to make receiving state specific information for individuals around voter registration easy to navigate, and are invaluable resources for students and community members alike.
President Obama outlines five things that are harder than “registering to vote” and launches an initiative: "Turn Up the Vote," which encourages people to engage in the democratic process and register to vote.
This video clip is sponsored by Buzzfeed, the White House, and TurboVote.
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/
- https://www.buzzfeed.com/briggles/registering-to-vote-with-president-obama
To learn more about NASPA commitment to Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement visit the NASPA Lead Initiative website here. For specific guidance, take a look at our newly released NASPA 5 Things Issue Brief that’s focused on providing guidance for how student affairs professionals can institutionalize civic engagement on today’s college campuses.
Additional Resources:
As a part of NASPA’s Online Learning Community, we offer online courses On Demand, which means that participants can listen to the recorded sessions at a time and place that is convenient for them. We have a host of online courses related to Democratic Engagement and Civic Learning. A few recent highlights include: