UMD Receives Gold Seal for Excellence in Student Voter Agreement

At the 2019 ALL IN Challenge Awards Ceremony held to recognize colleges and universities committed to increasing college student voting rates, UMD received a gold seal for achieving a student rate between 40% and 49%. A full list of seal awardees can be viewed here.

“The university is proud to receive this recognition on behalf of Terps Vote,” said John Zacker, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs. “Students, faculty and staff have worked tirelessly to increase voter turnout and civic engagement on campus. This achievement is proof that our students are prepared to meet and solve the nation’s most pressing challenges beginning with going to the polls to make their voices heard."

Student participation in elections has increased from the 2014 midterm elections to the recent 2018 midterm election. According to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, an initiative of Tufts University’s Institute for Democracy & Higher Education, voter turnout at the more than 1,000 institutions participating in the study increased by 21 points from 19% to 40%. UMD’s data reveals that our student population voted at even higher rates, with a 2018 voting rate of 46%.

“We are excited to honor UMD 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 UMD 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 nonpartisan, 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 citizenship, and make democratic participation a core value on their campus.

More than 560 campuses, enrolling more than 6.2 million students, have joined the Challenge since its launch in summer 2016.