UMD Named One of America’s Best Colleges for Student Voting

The University of Maryland has been listed among 58 universities in the nation who are living up to their civic responsibility to develop students who buy in and give back to their country and communities.

For the first year, Washington Monthly magazine expanded on their analysis of civic initiatives at colleges and universities, by creating an exclusive list of those who excel in this area. The colleges listed were first evaluated for the magazine's overall best college ranking and then four more factors were evaluated to determine their commitment to student voting. These factors include:

• Participation in Tufts University’s National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), which helps colleges calculate their precise student voting and registration rates by combining national voting records with enrollment data.
• Participation in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, an effort that uses NSLVE data to help colleges create plans to boost their students’ voting rates and civic participation.
• Public release of NSLVE data as an ALL IN school.
• Public release of ALL IN action plan.

The University of Maryland recently reauthorized its NSLVE status through the year 2023, and have been an ALL IN school with a public action plan since 2014. The most recent 2018 action plan features initiatives that emphasize innovation and advocacy to inspire social change through students. UMD is also participating in the Big Ten Voting Challenge, which aims to register even more students to become civically engaged.

The full Washington Monthly list of America’s Best Colleges for Student Voting is available here.