SLU Recognized as Leader in Voter Engagement
04/25/2025
Saint Louis University has been recognized for its voter engagement efforts.
The Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project and NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education announced that 272 campuses in 39 states and the District of Columbia were designated as “Voter Friendly Campuses.” The initiative recognizes institutions that have planned and implemented nonpartisan practices that encourage their students to register and vote.
The mission of the Voter Friendly Campus designation is to bolster colleges and universities’ nonpartisan efforts to help students overcome barriers to participating in the political process — every year, not just during years featuring federal elections. Those selected were evaluated based on a written plan for how institutions planned to register, educate, and turnout student voters in 2024, how they facilitated voter engagement efforts on their campuses, followed by a final analysis of their nonpartisan efforts. SLU’s designation is valid through December 2026.
The institutions designated in this fifth cycle of the Voter Friendly Campus program include a wide range of two-year, four-year, public, private, rural, and urban campuses that collectively serve over four million students. The list of designated institutions includes 13 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, as well as 47 Community Colleges.
SLU has received the designation all five times.
Earlier this academic year, SLU was also named one of the 2024 ALL IN Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting. ALL IN’s Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting recognizes colleges and universities making intentional efforts to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement and college student voting.
For the designation, campuses participate in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, develop a nonpartisan democratic engagement action plan, and have a current signatory to ALL IN’s Higher Education Presidents’ Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation. As an initiative of Civic Nation, ALL IN seeks to make participation in local, state, and federal elections a social norm, substantially increase the number of college students who are democratically engaged on an ongoing basis, during and between elections, and not just at the polls, and make educating for democratic engagement on college campuses an accepted and expected part of the culture and curriculum so that students graduate with the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and values needed to be informed and active citizens.
Leading up to the 2024 Presidential Election, Saint Louis University hosted more than 60 voter registration, voter education, and get-out-the-vote activities, and assisted many students with accessing their ballots–particularly students who were registered outside of Missouri and needed to vote by mail.
SLU’s voter engagement efforts are coordinated by the Center for Social Action, with numerous contributions by student leaders and campus partners. SLU also hosted two on-campus polling places in November, as well as during recent Municipal Elections.
Anyone who is interested in helping with future voter engagement efforts should contact Leah Sweetman, Ph.D., in SLU’s Center for Social Action.