#STUDENTVOTE STARTER PACK

Fresh Faculty Felicia

Hi there! I’m Felicia. I have a role to play in making sure all of my students know how to vote and be more democratically engaged. My curriculum is pretty tight and I’m looking for easy ways to get myself and my students more involved.

ABOUT ME

I am looking for more classroom resources and community spaces to engage with my peers. I really care about this work, even if it doesn’t necessarily relate directly to my job or career advancement as a professor. (Though it could!)

You might relate to me if you are a faculty member on a college or university campus and you are focused on how to get your peers and students more involved. I’m not necessarily institutionalizing voter engagement…yet! (Check out my friend, New Campus Staff Nadia, if you are!).

Completely understandable, Felicia. Here are some helpful things to do to get started.

Research what is possibly happening on your campus already!

There may be other students, staff or faculty on your campus who are also working to increase voting and democratic engagement. 

Is your campus already part of the SLSV Coalition? If so, reach out to the point of contact on their partner page!

If your campus has enrolled in the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) in the past, you can use the student voting data to understand your campus’ voting landscape better.

A good place to start is the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challege’s website to see if your campus is part of the Challenge and if it has a public campus action plan and/or a public NSLVE report.

Look for a campus student voting coalition: Does your institution have a campus voting coalition? Check to see if a center or department on campus leads the coalition as an initiative or if there’s a registered student organization leading the work.

Read about research and recommendations to help inform your work!

Sign up for the Student Vote Research Network newsletter and read past posts from other academics and community experts.

APSA’s Teaching Civic Engagement Across the Disciplines evaluates the goals, challenges, and rewards of integrating civic education into the curriculum, highlighting best practices across disciplines and campuses.

IDHE’s Election Imperatives reports share research recommendations for what campuses can do to institutionalize student political learning on campus.

The National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement’s A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy’s Future (2012) is the founding text that documents the nation’s civic health and includes recommendations for action that address campus culture, general education, and civic inquiry as part of major and career fields as well as hands-on civic problem-solving across differences.

The Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Theory of Change is a companion piece to “A Crucible Moment” that describes how the components — civic ethos, civic literacy and skill building, civic inquiry, civic action, and civic agency — are actualized on campuses and outside of the campus community. 

Check out these classroom integration resources!

Ask Every Student Faculty Champions Guide is a toolkit for faculty to integrate nonpartisan democratic engagement activities into the classroom – both virtually and in person.

Faculty Professional Development Workshop for Election Readiness, developed with Miami Dade College, is a resource for using professional development workshops to prepare faculty to help students be election ready.

Ask Every Student Classroom Visits Resources include templates for pledge cards, civic engagement packets, presentations, and resources for registering students to vote in classes but these can transfer to other voter engagement spaces too!

Scholar Strategy Network’s Faculty Guide to Student Voting in the Classroom is a faculty guide to bring voter registration, education and voter turnout information directly into the classroom.

Project Pericles’ Course Syllabi provide examples of how faculty members are incorporating civic engagement into a wide variety of disciplines in the fine arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

Project Pericles’ Voting Modules are a set of curricular resources for faculty, across all disciplines, who are interested in incorporating nonpartisan voter education into the curriculum.

Ask Every Student Canvas Module is a template to create a module for your campus’ learning management system (LMS). The module can function as a one-stop-shop for students to access information and support for participating in the voting and democratic engagement processes.

IDHE’s Making Sense of Guides are periodically released short discussion guides meant 1) as a way to quickly become acquainted with an issue, 2) see what people are reading on the topic, and 3) as a way to begin a conversation, using some discussion-framing questions. You can check these out by following the link and filtering by resource type.

Educate yourself on the voting laws and rules in your state!

Partner with your local election officials! Nobody knows your local voting laws and rules better and they are an essential partnership for doing this work! Check out the Election Official and Campus Engagement Report and Toolkit, for information, best practices, and tools to engage in successful outreach and collaboration with local election officials.

Check out the Campus Vote Project’s Student Voting Guides. You can keep this handy to learn more about the voting laws in your state, but they are also helpful if you need to reference another state for your fellow students who come from out-of-state. 

Voter ID laws can be confusing. Every state has different rules, and the rules can differ depending on voting method. For college students, things can get even more complicated. Clear, accurate, and easily available voter ID messaging is essential to ensuring students have what they need to cast their ballots. Check out our resource with VoteRiders to find a student voter ID landing page, voter ID info cards, and a communications toolkit! 

Want to dive deeper on resources? Go to the SLSV Coalition Resource Library and use filters to find what you’re looking for. 

You don’t need to do this alone. Check out some of these SLSV Partners who can help you!

Connect and organize with other faculty members!

Look deeply into your campus community to find others who may be interested in your efforts like your Faculty Senate and/or faculty representation organizations

The Faculty Network for Student Voting Rights supports and empowers faculty of all disciplines in higher education to contribute to the development of students and faculty as engaged voters and full participants in a democratic society.

These organizations support faculty members who are interested in democratic engagement: 

Check out our Partner Directory, which shows what nonprofit organizations may be working on your campus, and who else in your area may be doing similar work. Use filters to find the right partners for you!

Thanks, but I have more questions!

Check out the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Science Rising initiative! They are a nationwide nonpartisan movement fighting for science, justice, and equity in our democracy. They support and inspire the scientific and academic community, especially students in STEM fields, to engage with their local communities and participate in our democracy.

We also have created specific resources to support STEM civic engagement efforts:

  • Science and Civics Guide: This guide is targeted at campus leaders (students, faculty, and administrators) as well as others who are looking for guidance on how to communicate the connections between science, scientists, and democratic engagement. We hope these talking points and examples can spark conversations and help STEM students reflect and see themselves as part of, and not separate from, politics.

  • Your Major on the Ballot: Emma Godel from American University created this resource as part of the 2022 Ask Every Student Codesigner Cohort to help students connect their academic disciplines to political engagement. With over 35 majors covered, these talking points, issues, and articles can help make voting meaningful for students of many disciplines.
  • Project Pericles occasionally provides mini-grants to integrate their voting modules in the classroom. You can learn more here!

     

  • Join the SLSV Coalition’s listserv! We are always pushing out funding opportunities from the network when they become available. Examples of funding opportunities we have offered or highlighted in the past were one-time grants, Ask Every Student implementation grants, and rapid response grants. Join the Coalition! 

Having conversations about controversial issues is one of the most vital aspects of civic and political learning, and should be encouraged! Check out this resource from IDHE on how to navigate how to facilitate these conversations on your campus. 

Have a question that isn’t answered here? Have a question that isn’t answered here? Feel free to email our Campus Engagement & Support Coordinator Sithara Menon sithara@slsvcoalition.org and we are happy to assist!