Mississippi State honored for excellence in student voter engagement
Mississippi State’s efforts to encourage active and informed citizenship among its student body have resulted in a special award for the state’s leading university.
Among institutions of higher learning from across the country formally honored Tuesday [Nov. 12] for campus voter participation in the 2018 national midterm elections, MSU received a Bronze Seal at the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. The Bronze Seal designates a 20-29% student voter participation rate. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge is a nonpartisan, national initiative recognizing and supporting campuses as they work to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement and full student voter participation.
Thessalia Merivaki, an MSU assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, said in a recent article on building civic engagement capacity that, “Increasing voter participation on college campuses is becoming a priority within higher education institutions. Advocacy groups, academics, as well as students encourage higher education institutions to invest in civic capacity in order to foster norms of civic engagement and participation as part of an institution’s culture.”
Efforts by the MSU Student Association, Center for Student Activities, Office of Student Leadership and Community Engagement, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, and Division of Student Affairs to increase voter registration and turnout among students in the 2018 national midterm elections also resulted in the university’s designation as a “Voter Friendly Campus” -- an honor bestowed by NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and the Fair Election Center’s Campus Vote Project. As part of Tufts University’s Institute for Democracy and Higher Education’s National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement, MSU reported a 14.3 percent increase in the student voting rate compared to the 2014 midterms.
During the more recent MSU Student Association-sponsored, campus-wide voter registration drive in September, State Auditor Shad White encouraged students to exercise their right to vote and inspire fellow citizens to do the same.
“A critical responsibility of higher education is to help students learn what it means to be an actively engaged citizen, and voting is one of the most important activities in sustaining our democracy,” said MSU Vice President for Student Affairs Regina Hyatt. “We were delighted to see growth in voter engagement among our student body and will continue to work across campus to educate students about their responsibility to become informed voters.”
More than 560 campuses, enrolling more than 6.2 million students, have joined the Challenge since its launch in summer 2016. 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. For more, visit www.allinchallenge.org.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.
Sasha Steinberg | Public Affairs
