The University of Illinois Springfield has been recognized for the first time by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge as a 2022 most engaged campus for college student voting. ALL IN recognizes colleges and universities for making intentional efforts to increase student voter participation.
In the 2020 election, UIS students voted at a rate of 67.5%, which exceeded the national average for collegiate voting as outlined in the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement.
“We have a responsibility as a University to ensure students are actively engaged in the democratic process,” said Jill Hawkins, program director for the UIS Volunteer and Civic Engagement Center. “It is a great honor to be recognized with this designation as a result of our hard work and accomplishments.”
UIS joins a group of 394 colleges and universities recognized by ALL IN for completing these four actions:
- Participating in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
- Sharing 2020 National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement Reports with campus voting data
- Developing and submitting a 2022 democratic engagement action plan
- Having a current signatory to ALL IN’s Higher Education Presidents’ Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation.
The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge empowers colleges and universities to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student democratic engagement. Campuses that join the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge complete a set of action items, with the support of ALL IN Challenge staff, to institutionalize nonpartisan civic learning, political engagement and voter participation on their campus.
ABOUT ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge:
The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) is a national nonpartisan initiative of Civic Nation, a 501(c)(3) organization. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge strives to change civic culture and institutionalize democratic engagement activities and programs on college campuses, making voter participation a defining feature of campus life.
ALL IN, in collaboration with over 960 higher education institutions, seeks to make participation in local, state, and federal elections a social norm; substantially increase the number of college students who are democratically engaged on an ongoing basis, during and between elections, and not just at the polls, and; make educating for democratic engagement on college campuses an accepted and expected part of the culture and curriculum so that students graduate with the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and values needed to be an informed and active citizen.