Colleges and universities are leaders in cultivating generations of informed, engaged community members needed for democracy to thrive. They are designed to educate and develop citizens. With nearly 20 million college students in the United States, institutions of higher education have a responsibility to help their students overcome the structural and psychological obstacles that new voters often face. And they can instill the importance of democratic participation, which can inspire lifelong participation in our democracy.
Recognizing the importance of getting college students more engaged in our democratic processes, the Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition was founded in February 2016 to design and advance a shared agenda around student voting and political learning in higher education. Comprised of a diverse group of nearly 400 local, state, national, and student nonpartisan organizations working with over 1,600 campuses, the SLSV Coalition is the national hub and the largest nonpartisan network in the U.S. dedicated to increasing political learning and college student voting.
This lightning session will talk about how colleges and universities can work towards graduating students into voters based off of the research Ideas42 conducted about the behavioral and psychological barriers to voting and how their campus can institutionalize civic learning and democratic engagement in their community.
