TRENTON, NJ – At the first-ever ALL IN Challenge Awards Ceremony, held October 19, to recognize colleges and universities committed to increasing college student voting rates, The College of New Jersey received a bronze seal for achieving a student rate between 50% and 59%. A full list of seal awardees can be viewed here.
Dr. Michael Nordquist, Executive Director of the Center for Community Engaged Learning and Research stated, “We’re excited to see the work we’ve done around voter registration and engagement over the past two years be recognized. This bronze seal and our designation as a Voter Friendly Campus earlier this year demonstrate TCNJ’s deep commitment to creating an environment that supports political engagement not just after graduation, but now. This recognition is the result of a long-standing partnership between academic and student affairs, and we look forward to increasing out voter registration and turnout for the 2018 election cycle.”
Student participation in elections has increased in the past few years. A recent report, Democracy Counts: A Report on U.S. College and University Student Voting, from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, an initiative of Tufts University’s Institute for Democracy in Higher Education, shows that between the 2012 presidential election, and the 2016 presidential election, student voting went from 45.1% of eligible voters in 2012 to 48.3% in 2016 – a 7% improvement.
“I am proud to honor The College of New Jersey with an ALL IN Challenge Bronze seal in recognition of their dedication, hard work, and achievement,” said Zaneeta E. Daver, director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “The College of New Jersey is not only ensuring that a more representative population participates in our nation’s democracy, but is educating students to be civic-minded. They are an example to be emulated.”
The All IN Campus Democracy Challenge is a national awards program. The Challenge encourages higher education institutions to help students form the habits of active and informed citizenship, and make democratic participation a core value on their campus. By joining the Challenge, campuses commit to:
- Conveninga campus-wide committee that includes members from academic affairs, student affairs, and the student body, as well as any other relevant stakeholders;
- Developing and implementingan action plan to improve democratic engagement;
- Participatingin the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) in order to measure student voting rates; and
- Sharing their campus’ action plan and NSLVE results in order to be eligible for a recognition seal and/or awards.
More than 300 campuses, enrolling more than 4 million students, have joined the Challenge since its launch in summer 2016.