For us, building an equitable democracy begins with supporting campuses equitably. We focus on understanding the specific needs of each campus and provide them with the resources they need to meet their version of success. This approach shows up tangibly in the places we redirect funding to, with community colleges and Minority Serving Institutions always being our top priority. It also shows up in our work to ensure that underrepresented students have the access and power to confidently participate in our democracy.

We believe that in order to realize full student voter participation, campuses must remove physical and psychological barriers that students face in voting and change systems to ensure that all students have equitable access to the democratic process. This shows up in our work supporting campuses in placing and protecting on-campus voting locations, helping lead a nonpartisan digital voter education campaign through National Voter Education Week, creating comprehensive campus voting plans that incorporate strategies for reaching all students, and/or integrating processes to engage students as voters through existing systems that they take part in every day, such as campus orientations, class registrations, etc.

We understand there is no one-size-fits-all approach to registering and turning out students to vote. Local leaders know the distinct challenges and resources of their campus communities best, and can implement solutions most helpful to their specific contexts. Instead of erasing the work and vision of local leaders (which happens far too often), we center local leaders in our work by trusting, supporting, and celebrating their knowledge and enthusiasm to create real change in their communities. To that end, the governing bodies that set our strategic direction, annual goals, and direct our funding priorities, the SLSV Executive Committee and SLSV Advisory Board, are made up of local leaders from across the country.

We know that it’s not enough to simply claim we’re not racist; we must actively be anti-racist. Alongside and contradictory to a representative democracy, white supremacy, anti-blackness, and xenophobia is woven into the very fabric of our nation. Recognizing this, we purposefully incorporate a racial justice lens throughout our work to ensure students of all races and ethnicities are welcomed and actively encouraged to participate in our democracy. From creating content that helps achieve voter parity across racial and ethnic groups to subsidizing efforts that lead to the diversification of leadership across campus and community civic engagement spaces, our work advances anti-racist ideas, actions, policies, and systems.

We believe that democratic engagement – especially when institutionalized and student driven – can positively impact students’ learning and overall college experience. Leading research in the higher ed field shows that there is a direct correlation between student success, retention, and student engagement. Engaged learning practices – across both the curricular and co-curricular settings – deepen students’ connection to campus. That’s why we support faculty efforts to bring student voter engagement into the classroom, administrators’ work to make student voter engagement a pervasive part of campus culture, and students’ ability to facilitate peer-to-peer engagement.