February 29, 2012
NJ Revilla-Garcia

New Campaign Launched to Increase Student Civic Engagement

The Campaign Empowers Students to Work with College Administrators to Get their Peers to the Polls

The Fair Elections Legal Network (FELN) recently launched the Campus Vote Project (CVP) designed to empower college students to work with college administrators and local election officials to institutionalize best practices that will increase student participation in elections by providing tools to reduce barriers to voting on their college

More than 40 organizations were represented at the launch of the Campus Vote Project during an event at George Washington University Law School. Panelists discussed the importance of collaborating with different offices and departments at colleges and universities, student government, and state entities to promote civic engagement by providing tools and support.

HACU President & CEO Antonio R. Flores was among the panelists and mentioned that efforts like the CVP are of great importance to the Hispanic electorate, as they face barriers, and even unwelcoming climates, in states where Hispanic demographics are burgeoning.

The CVP’s website offers a toolkit that contains several guides to implement changes on campus. These guides range from organizing an election awareness campaign, integrating voter information into a school’s website, to making sure students have the right voter ID.

To download the toolkit, or for more information on the CVP project, visit www.campusvoteproject.org.