From 2014 to 2018, CSUN’s student voting rate increased from 14 to 48 percent.

California State University, Northridge has received a gold seal from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for achieving a campus student voting rate between 40 and 49 percent in the 2018 election.

The ALL IN Challenge award recognizes colleges and universities committed to increasing student voting rates. CSUN and other institutions received their awards on Nov. 12 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

“CSUN is committed to our nation’s democratic ideals and is proud to receive this national recognition of our efforts to encourage student voter registration and voting,” said CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison. “We want our students and graduates to be civic-minded participants of our democracy, and voting is truly the cornerstone of our political system. Our faculty, staff, administrators, and students worked together to energize and increase student voter engagement, which is critically important as we look to the global challenges facing us now and in the next generation.”

According to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement, voter turnout at more than 1,000 participating institutions increased by 21 percentage points, from 19 to 40 percent. From 2014 to 2018, CSUN’s student voting rate increased from 14 to 48 percent.

“We are excited to honor CSUN with an ALL IN Challenge gold seal in recognition of their intentional efforts to increase democratic engagement and full voter participation,” said Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, executive director of the All IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “More institutions like CSUN are changing culture on campus by institutionalizing nonpartisan democratic engagement efforts that are resulting in the incredible student voter turnout rates that we’ve seen across the country.”

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge is a national initiative recognizing and supporting campuses as they work to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement and full student voter participation. The challenge encourages higher education institutions to help students form the habits of active and informed citizenry and make democratic participation a core value on their campus.

Since summer 2016, more than 560 campuses enrolling 6.2 million students have joined the challenge.

ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, Dianne F. Harrison, Student Voting