The Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition, the largest nonpartisan network in the US dedicated to growing college student voter participation, launched its 2026 agenda today, announcing the Coalition’s shared goals for the year ahead as well as the 18-person Advisory Board who will help lead the national network in accomplishing them.
The SLSV Coalition’s 2026 agenda, developed using direct input from attendees of the 2025 National Student Vote Summit, consists of 18 objectives across seven categories – strategic direction, programs, connections and partnerships, communications, resources and trainings, funding, and research.
In addition to these objectives, the Coalition laid out five North Star goals that encompass its ambitions for college student voter participation in the 2026 midterm elections: Growing the national college student voter turnout rate to 40%, matching 2018 levels and exceeding 2022 levels by 9 percentage points; growing college student voter registration rate to 80%, exceeding 2022 levels by 4 percentage points, and closing turnout gaps between students of all backgrounds, ages, and institution types.
To reflect the challenges and urgency of the present state of US democracy, the theme of the SLSV Coalition’s 2026 agenda is “Rising to the Moment.” The agenda, which can be found in full here, focuses on the following priorities:
- Helping partners address key gaps in their networks and nonpartisan student voter engagement strategies in order to account for new realities, including college students’ growing challenges in meeting their basic housing and financial needs, and an increasingly complex climate for nonpartisan student vote leaders in building and sustaining institutional support for their work.
- Growing the reach and efficacy of core programs, such as Ask Every Student, Campus Takeover of the Civic Holidays, and National Voter Education Week, in order to support student voter registration, mobilization, and education nationwide.
- Deepening engagement by continuing to grow and strengthen SLSV Coalition in-person and virtual gatherings, while strengthening our network’s capacity and storytelling capabilities by growing collaboration with key Coalition stakeholders such as national leaders in campus Greek life, Local Election Officials, and campus media organizations.
- Prioritizing usability and reducing barriers to entry for partners seeking to use and navigate SLSV-created resources that are especially relevant to nonpartisan student voter engagement in 2026.
- Building knowledge in the nonpartisan student voting space, including and especially about the relationship between nonpartisan student voter engagement work and academic success, and the state of nonpartisan student voter engagement at community colleges.
“This is a pivotal year for our Coalition, the higher education sector, and our democracy,” said SLSV Coalition Co-Founder and Executive Director Clarissa Unger. “Our ambitious agenda reflects that reality, and so will the urgency with which we pursue our collective goals.”
In service of these goals, the SLSV Coalition has selected 18 leaders of local, statewide, and national organizations from throughout the US to help lead a national student vote movement that saw record engagement for a non-federal-election year in 2025, with nonpartisan voter mobilizations taking place on 1,130 college campuses during the fall Civic Holidays and 98 campuses reporting the implementation of nonpartisan voter registration strategies using the Ask Every Student framework.
The 2026 SLSV Advisory Board consists of three current college students, six individuals who support nonpartisan student voter engagement efforts in a staff or faculty capacity at their college or university, three leaders of statewide advocacy groups, four leaders of national nonprofit organizations, one state election official, and one local election official:
- Adam Rizzoli, Graduate Student, George Mason University, and Disability Voting Rights Week Coordinator for REV UP Virginia
- August Maulfair, Senior Manager of State Advocacy, Student Basic Needs Coalition
- Caleb Gustavson, Junior, Georgia State University, and Student PIRGs National Spokesperson
- Clare Antesberger, Student Intern, ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
- Crystal Brown, Associate Director of Leadership and Engagement, Eastern Illinois University
- Dylan Villalon, Organizing Manager, MOVE Texas
- Janet Donavan, Teaching Professor, University of Colorado Boulder
- Jennifer Yu, Youth Engagement Manager, North Carolina Asian Americans Together
- Jeremy Pittman, Honors College Director, Coahoma Community College
- Meagan Rinard, Assistant Director for Community and Civic Engagement, Ohio State University
- Monica Bustinza, Deputy Director, Engage Florida Civic Fund
- Ray Shackelford, Vice President of Equitable Justice, National Urban League
- Rebecca Townsend, Local Election Official, Town of Longmeadow, MA
- Soji Akomolafe, Political Science Department Chair, Norfolk State University
- Tasha Thigpen, Director of HBCU Initiatives, Hinds Community College – Utica Campus
- Tasmin Swanson, Program Manager, Center for Civic Design
- Tia Turner, Our Homes, Our Vote Project Manager, National Low Income Housing Coalition
- Vanessa Diaz Gaumond, Youth/Civic Engagement Coordinator, Maine Secretary of State Office
“Our 2026 Advisory Board is a collection of extraordinary people who each have a track record of advancing nonpartisan student voter engagement in their communities and through the organizations they lead,” said Unger. “It is a privilege to bring them together to collaborate for our Coalition’s shared national agenda and our country’s democracy.”
About the SLSV Coalition
The SLSV Coalition is the national hub and largest nonpartisan network in the United States dedicated to increasing college student voter participation. The Coalition convenes and connects partners, campuses, and students with each other and with resources and programming towards achieving a vision of ensuring that every student has easy and equal access to participate in every election. They use data, relationships, celebration, and easy-to-follow planning structures, to help campus and local leaders register and turnout more student voters every year. The SLSV Coalition is a project of NEO Philanthropy. NEO Philanthropy is strictly nonpartisan, and does not support or oppose any candidate or party.