MSU awarded ‘Most Improved’ Big Ten university and ‘Gold Campus’ for student voter turnout in 2022 midterm elections

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Awards

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University has won awards for its efforts to promote student voting and nonpartisan democratic engagement from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.

For the 2022 election, MSU was awarded the “Most Improved Voting Rate” among Big Ten schools with regard to student voter turnout. Additionally, MSU was named a “Gold Campus” for receiving a turnout rate higher than 40% — with turnout in 2022 reaching 7% higher than the national average for college campuses. 

MSU’s voter engagement and registration efforts are led by MSUvote, a coalition of students, staff and community partners. The coalition played a critical role during the 2022 election in achieving high voter engagement and turnout on campus.

“We take great pride in the MSUvote Campus and Community Initiative. The dedication of our faculty, staff, students and community partners to the mission of MSUvote — providing nonpartisan voter education and making registration and voting accessible to all students — is what truly impacts our student voting rates,” said Renee Brown, co-director of MSUvote and executive director for MSU’s Center for Community Engaged Learning.

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge compiled data from more than 500 campuses using figures from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) out of Tufts University. More than 1,060 institutions are enrolled with 10 million students participating in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, which speaks to how competitive the challenge is for winning a distinction.

The full list of campus award winners for all the categories is available online.

MSUvote and campus partners have been preparing for the 2024 presidential election and will host educational opportunities in the coming weeks in addition to providing expanded access to voting on campus. MSU’s WKAR has partnered with the city of East Lansing to hold an Early Voting Center on campus at Studio B from Monday, Oct. 21 to Sunday, Nov. 3, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Read more about the EVC on MSUToday. “MSUvote has established strong, long-standing relationships with our local clerk’s offices. We are grateful to our partners at the city of East Lansing and WKAR for their collaboration in hosting the campus Early Voting Center at WKAR’s Studio B. We are delighted that our early voting center will be held at the MSU Public Television Studio,” said Suchitra Webster, co-director of MSUvote and director of the Office of Community and Student Relations.

Reports from NSLVE showed that colleges and universities had the second-highest voter turnout among students in a midterm election since it began measuring this data. As the 2024 election is right around the corner, college campuses like MSU’s are sure to play a big role.

For more information or ways to get involved, visit MSUvote’s website for specific events. For MSU’s latest news on politics, visit the MSUToday politics collection.

Read on MSUToday.

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