Shenandoah University has been recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) as a 2022 ALL IN Most Engaged Campus for College Student Voting. The program recognizes colleges and universities for making intentional efforts to increase student voter participation.
Shenandoah joins a group of 394 colleges and universities recognized by ALL IN for completing these four actions:
- Participated in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
- Shared 2020 NSLVE (National Study of Reports with campus voting data) with ALL IN
- Developed and submitted a 2022 democratic engagement action plan with ALL IN
- Signed on to ALL IN’s Higher Education Presidents’ Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation.
SU’s Center for Civic Engagement, led by Director Rebecca Gibson and work-study student Libby Tennyson ’25, the CCE’s voter engagement coordinator, fueled the university’s efforts to increase student voter participation in the 2022 election. The CCE invited local congressional candidates to campus to speak to students and answer questions, encouraged students to register to vote during special on-campus events, held an Election Day celebration on Shenandoah’s main campus, and drove students to local polling places on Election Day and multiple times during the early voting period so that they could cast their votes.
The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge empowers colleges and universities to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student democratic engagement. Shenandoah is one of over 950 institutions that are part of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, which engages over nine million students in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Campuses that join the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge complete a set of action items, with the support of ALL IN Challenge staff, to institutionalize nonpartisan civic learning, political engagement, and voter participation on their campus.
ALL IN, in collaboration with its institutional partners, seeks to make participation in local, state, and federal elections a social norm; substantially increase the number of college students who are democratically engaged on an ongoing basis, during and between elections, and not just at the polls, and; make educating for democratic engagement on college campuses an accepted and expected part of the culture and curriculum so that students graduate with the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and values needed to be an informed and active citizen.
“College student voter turnout has increased since 2016, and this increase has been driven by students. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge is excited to expand our ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll to recognize these student voting champions across the country,” said Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, executive director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “These students registered voters, served on their campus voting coalitions, spearheaded voter education efforts, advocated for campus polling locations and organized other voter engagement efforts to ensure their peers were confident and informed voters.”
