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SUNY Geneseo was honored recently by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for achieving a student voting rate between 30 and 39 percent in the 2018 midterm elections. The Challenge recognizes colleges and universities committed to increasing college student voting rates.
“SUNY Geneseo is honored to receive this national recognition for our voter registration and civic engagement efforts,” said Nicholas Palumbo, assistant dean of students for leadership and service. “Our students are dedicated to promoting the development of the civically minded practices needed to tackle the most pressing challenges of our time on a local and global level.”
Student participation in elections has increased from the 2014 midterm election to the recent 2018 midterm election. Student voting on the Geneseo campus rose by almost 600 percent in last year’s election, according to a report by the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE). The number of Geneseo students who voted increased from 335 in 2014 to 1,994 (or from 6.3 to 37.5 percent of students) in 2018.
“We are pleased to honor SUNY Geneseo with an ALL IN Challenge silver seal in recognition of their intentional efforts to increase democratic engagement and full voter participation,” said Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, executive director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “More institutions like Geneseo are changing the culture on campus by institutionalizing nonpartisan democratic engagement efforts that result in the incredible student voter turnout rates that we’ve seen across the country.”
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. 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. More than 560 campuses, enrolling more than 6.2 million students, have joined the Challenge since its launch in summer 2016.