St. Olaf recognized as a 2024 Most Engaged Campus for college student voting
St. Olaf College has been recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge as a 2024 Most Engaged Campus for College Student Voting.
The ALL IN Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting recognizes colleges and universities for outstanding efforts to increase nonpartisan student voter participation.
“A thriving democracy is an all-hands-on-deck endeavor. It takes leadership in multiple forms: from our administration, to committed faculty and staff, and of course spearheaded by our many talented student organizers throughout the years,” says Program Director for Academic Civic Engagement Alyssa Melby. “This recognition is shared collectively by every St. Olaf community member who not only practices democracy on Election Day but in myriad forms of everyday interactions and decision-making processes.”
After receiving the award for the highest national student voting rate for the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, St. Olaf joins a group of 471 colleges and universities recognized by ALL IN for completing four core actions:
- Participating in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
- Sharing the 2022 National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) Report voting data with ALL IN
- Developing and submitting a 2024 democratic engagement action plan with ALL IN
- Having a current signatory to ALL IN’s Higher Education Presidents’ Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation
“The research is clear: colleges and universities that make intentional efforts to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement have higher campus voter registration and voter turnout rates. This year we saw more colleges than ever before step up their efforts to ensure that their students were registered and ready to make their voices heard at the ballot box,” says Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, executive director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “These Most Engaged Campuses are setting the standard for nonpartisan civic engagement work for colleges and universities across the country.”
“These Most Engaged Campuses are setting the standard for nonpartisan civic engagement work for colleges and universities across the country.”
— ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge Executive Director Jennifer Domagal-Goldman
For the 2024 election, Academic Civic Engagement and the Institute for Freedom and Community collaborated to provide opportunities for students to engage on campus. This was done through the Election Ambassador program, which represents students from athletics, residence life, student organizations, and academic civic engagement courses. The goal of the Election Ambassadors program is to connect with students as a nonpartisan resource to answer their questions, encourage excitement and engagement, and assist in creating a plan for casting their ballots. The student election organizers this year were Elijah Sonntag ’25, Madeline Altman ’25, Sophie Smith ’26, and Roxi Wessel ’26.
In addition to the election ambassador work this year, the Flaten Art Museum at St. Olaf College hosted Practicing Democracy: 150 Years of St. Olaf Student Civic Engagement, an exhibit that explores and promotes St. Olaf student civic engagement as the college marks its 150th anniversary. Decades of engagement and activism paved the way for St. Olaf College to lead voter engagement among U.S. colleges and universities today. The Institute for Freedom and Community hosted a series of lectures on democracy and dialogue on an array of election topics, such as immigration policy.