At the 2019 ALL IN Challenge Awards Ceremony held to recognize colleges and universities committed to increasing college student voting rates, East Stroudsburg University received a silver seal for achieving a student rate between 30% and 39% during the 2018 midterm elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are proud to be part of a campus that is so engaged in the community. Many of our students are registered to vote here on campus, some travel home, and some use absentee ballots,\u201d said Santiago Solis, Ed.D., vice president for campus life and inclusive excellence. \u201cRegardless of how they vote or who they vote for, the most important thing is that students use their voices to create change in the community, state, and nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Student participation in elections has increased from the 2014 midterm election to the recent 2018 midterm election. According to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, an initiative of Tufts University\u2019s 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%. ESU\u2019s data reveals a 21.8% increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are excited to honor East Stroudsburg University with an ALL IN Challenge silver seal in recognition of their intentional efforts to increase democratic engagement and full voter participation,\u201d said Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, executive director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. \u201cMore institutions like ESU are changing culture on campus by institutionalizing nonpartisan democratic engagement efforts that are resulting in the incredible student voter turnout rates that we\u2019ve seen across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n