(DePaul University/Maria Toscano)This month, DePaul received official designation as a Voter Friendly Campus through an initiative coordinated by Campus Vote Project and NASPA, the Student Affairs in Higher Education professional organization.The initiative aims to increase voter registration and participation on college campuses across the U.S. The designation aims to help college administrators develop a strategy to engage students and set clear goals around upcoming elections.
Through a voter engagement plan spearheaded by the Division of Student Affairs, faculty, staff and students across the university implemented programs and events during fall 2020, reaching thousands of students. The plan established a working group, which implemented a number of initiatives:
- Voter registration geniuses, or peer ambassadors for voting, conducted outreach to more than 100 classrooms in fall 2020. They assisted in getting 225 students to register to vote or request mail-in ballots.
- Athletics conducted a marketing effort to get out the vote among student athletes. This work resulted in 100% of eligible voters in Athletics registering to vote prior to the November 2020 elections.
- The Student Government Association, Esports program, DePaul Activities Board and the Student Involvement Voter Engagement EDGE team developed livestreams, virtual events and social media campaigns, playing a crucial role in reaching thousands of DePaul students.
- DePaul's Esports program was the first university program to collaborate on webinars with Gamers.vote.
- Student Involvement created a Voter-Friendly DeHub page and shared a registration toolkit with student leaders. OSI's Sticker of the Month Club program distributed DePaul Vote buttons and “I vote because…" postcards to more than 1,700 students.
Student Involvement and the Office of Adult, Veteran and Commuter Student Affairs developed and coordinated the plan. The plan focused on three priorities: getting students registered to vote, informing and educating students about voting and voting rights in the U.S., and getting students to vote.
Campus Vote Project is a project of Fair Elections Center, a national, non-partisan, nonprofit voting rights organization. Campus Vote Project works with universities, community colleges, faculty, students and election officials to reduce barriers to student voting.