The Silver Seal is presented by the nonpartisan ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
Cal U has earned a Silver Seal from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. The award recognizes the University’s success in encouraging students to vote in the 2020 election.
The ALL IN Challenge is a national, nonpartisan initiative that “inspires, supports and celebrates colleges and universities (that are) working together to improve civic learning, political engagement and voter participation.”
More than 840 institutions enrolling close to 9 million students participated in the latest ALL IN Challenge.
Awards are based on the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE), a research study of the Institute for Democracy in Higher Education at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. The nonpartisan project examines and reports data about student voting on participating campuses.
The latest NSLVE report shows that 66.4% of Cal U students cast their ballot in 2020, slightly above the 66% voting rate for all institutions and more than 12% higher than Cal U’s voting rate in 2016.
The University also made strides in voter registration: 80.6% of eligible students were registered to vote in 2020, exceeding the rates for 2018 (70.4%) and 2016 (75.9%).
Voter engagement efforts at Cal U are coordinated through the campus chapter of the American Democracy Project, which holds voter registration drives, DebateWatch parties and educational events to encourage voter turnout, especially among student voters.
“Despite the many challenges we all faced in 2020, our students managed to beat the national level for student voting – and all of us at the American Democracy Project are thrilled to know that,” said Dr. Laura Tuennerman, campus director of the American Democracy Project at Cal U.
“I’m even more excited by the fact that more than 80% of our students registered to vote! That speaks well of Cal U as a place that values and supports civic engagement.”
Recipients of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge were announced at virtual ceremonies held Nov. 8.
In March, the nonpartisan Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project (CVP) and NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, named Cal U a 2021-2022 Voter Friendly Campus for its efforts to empower students to participate in the political process.