By Erin McIlraith, Center for Civic Engagement
PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State University has been named a voter-friendly campus through 2018 after registering 1,181 new voters through the systemwide Cougs Vote campaign.
WSU is one of 83 campuses in 23 states – and one of two in Washington – honored by national nonpartisan organizations Campus Vote Project and NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education for planning and implementing practices that encouraged students to register and vote in the 2016 general election and beyond.
“The overwhelmingly positive response to the Cougs Vote campaign across the WSU system is indicative of a burgeoning student interest in civic matters as well as our values as a university,” said Melanie Brown, director of the WSU Center for Civic Engagement (CCE). These values, she said, “underpin a WSU culture that advances the land-grant ideals of community engagement and civic responsibility.”
Cougs Vote involved 57 organizations on all WSU campuses. Groups organized 183 events that engaged 11,567 individuals. Highlights included debate watching, student debates and registration events like Donut Forget to Vote and Floats for Votes. In a post-campaign survey, a student said Cougs Vote “made me realize how much everyone’s vote matters.”
In support of WSU’s mission to extend knowledge through engagement, leadership and service to society, the CCE is committed to the civic purpose of higher education in preparing students to engage responsibly in our democracy in both election and non-election years.
The institutions designated voter-friendly represent a wide range with a total enrollment of nearly 1.4 million students. Find a complete list at http://voterfriendlycampus.org/campus-designees. Learn more about Cougs Vote at http://cce.wsu.edu/cougsvote.
News media contact:
Erin McIlraith, WSU Center for Civic Engagement communications, 509-335-0578, emcilraith@wsu.edu