NASPA Names UB a 'Voter Friendly Campus'
March 8, 2019
Contact: Office of Government and Public Affairs
Phone: 410.837.5739
The University of Baltimore is one of 123 college and university campuses in 31 states to earn the designation as a "Voter Friendly Campus" through a program sponsored by NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and the Fair Election Center's Campus Vote Project. The program requires all campuses with the designation to "engage their student body and promote voter registration and voting as part of their institutional mission." According to NASPA, the goal of the Voter Friendly Campus program is to "bolster efforts that help students overcome barriers to participating in the political process and develop a culture of democratic engagement on campus."
UB has a strong history of encouraging students to be active participants in government, policymaking and civic life—with a special emphasis on voting. Last year, the University was the only campus in the nation to receive the gold seal award from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, for its 70.9 percent voter participation rate.
The NASPA "Voter Friendly Campus" recognition resulted from work by campus representatives to "develop, implement and report results for engagement programs that encouraged their students to register and vote."
“Institutionalizing voter engagement, registration, and turnout efforts on college campuses is no easy feat for institutions of higher learning; especially in today’s political climate wherein many communities are polarized.” said NASPA President Kevin Kruger. "With the second iteration of the Voter Friendly Campus program, we’ve learned that campuses that have been most successful in fostering a campus climate inclusive of democratic participation do so by intentionally including multiple facets of the institutions' community in fostering the skills, knowledge, and dispositions supporting students’ civic agency."
UB's "Voter Friendly Campus" designation is valid through December 2020.
Learn more about the "Voter Friendly Campus" program.