Intro
Studies show that encouragement from faculty, staff, and other students makes a significant difference in student registration and turnout.
But it’s not always clear how to talk about voting in an academic environment that doesn't feel directly aligned with elections, like Political Science or History.
This guide will help frame your ask to allocate time to talk about voter engagement and upcoming elections in courses. For more info on asking institutions or faculty to include voter information in course syllabi, head here →
General Guidance
Elected officials and policy shape:
The laws that regulate or deregulate your industry
The type of research that occurs and is funded in your field
Cost and rules around student loans and tuition
Your Major On The Ballot is a resource from American University that makes the case for how voting connects to dozens of majors, from Accounting to Visual Arts. The guide pulls out key issues in the field and links to additional resources.
☝️ TIP: Make it easy for students to access voting resources where they already are. Learn more about options for featuring Motivote in campus tech tools, like Blackboard, Canvas, and Anthology Engage.
The University of Michigan’s Ginsberg Center compiled a set of faculty-oriented resources to promote connections, reflections and discussions, with prompts including:
What examples can you share of how broader economic, political, health, educational and social systems impact your discipline or field?
How is your discipline or field affected by local, state or federal legislative policies or judicial decisions?
What forms of data and analysis are considered legitimate in your field and why?
The Campus Election Engagement Project offers suggestions for integrating election issues into courses through conversations, assignments and volunteerism.
Examples include:
Give academic credit for student election engagement service.
Assign related research and writing projects related to election topics.
Have students create their own nonpartisan candidate or issue guides.
Have students fact-check as a strategy to teach media literacy skills.
Project Pericles, a nonprofit organization that promotes civic engagement within higher education, offers a guide for educators featuring 10-15 minute activities that can be used independently or in conjunction with existing plans. They also have a sample presentation deck on "Why Voting Matters."
STEM-Specific Guidance
STEM students vote at lower rates compared to other types of programs. STEM professors can make a major impact both by incorporating discussions about democracy and voting into their classes and reducing voting barriers like not scheduling labs on Election Day.
The Science and Civics Guide offers discussion guides for specific areas of study. (ie. How do you think we should make decisions about space travel? What is the role of chemists and product engineers regarding consumer health and safety?)
Building a Culture of Civic Engagement in STEM has an editable slide deck covering topics like 'why science needs democracy' and 'how science intersects with voting.'
You may also be interested in these relevant articles:
Do STEM Students Vote? - Brown University
Why Don’t STEM Majors Vote as Much as Others? - The Conversation
Additional Resources
Ask Every Student - Your Major on the Ballot
University of Michigan - Tools for Supporting Civic Engagement
ScienceRising - Building a Culture of Civic Engagement in STEM
Brown University - Do STEM Students Vote?
The Conversation - Why Don’t STEM Majors Vote as Much as Others?