(黑料网 photo/Keith Walters '11)
Student voting on the 黑料网 campus rose by almost 600 percent in last year's election, according to a report by the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE). The number of Geneseo students who voted increased from 335 in 2014 to 1,994 (or from 6.3 to 37.5 percent of students) in 2018.
"These numbers reflect Geneseo's hard work of not only getting students registered but getting them to the polls," said Nicholas Palumbo, assistant dean of students for leadership and service.
The NSLVE is conducted by the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education (IDHE) at Tufts University鈥檚 Tisch College of Civic Life. The study shows that nationwide, the compared to the previous midterm election in 2014. In 2018, the Average Institutional Voting Rate (AIVR) among campuses in the study was 39.1 percent, nearly 20 percentage points higher than 2014鈥檚 average turnout rate of 19.7 percent. Geneseo鈥檚 AIVR was 37.5 percent, more than 31 percentage points higher than its rate in 2014鈥攎eaning that its voting rate increase was nearly 12 percentage points higher than the national average. Turnout increases were widespread, with virtually all campuses seeing an increase over 2014.
Geneseo鈥檚 rates of student voter registration also rose in last year鈥檚 election, climbing from 64 percent in 2014 to 83 percent in 2018, landing it 10 percentage points higher than the national average of 73 percent. In 2014, 3,428 students were registered out of an eligible 5,326; in 2018, that number rose to 4,401 students out of an eligible 5,322.
鈥淚 am continually astonished by the deep commitment of our students to educate and motivate their fellow peers to participate in our political process,鈥 said Palumbo. 鈥淥ur commitment to civic responsibility challenges Geneseo students to engage in our democratic processes and creates the conditions for the development of ethical and engaged citizens.鈥
Previously, 黑料网 has been recognized by National Voter Registration Day for its student-led voter registration efforts. The College has also been designated a 鈥淰oter-Friendly Campus鈥 by the national nonpartisan organizations鈥 Campus Vote Project (CVP) and NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.
The NSLVE is the only national study of college-student voting. It is based on the voting records of more than 10 million students at more than 1,000 colleges and universities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia; IDHE does not receive any information that could individually identify students or how they voted. The study provides reports to participating colleges and universities, like 黑料网, which use them to support political learning and civic engagement as well as to identify and address gaps in political and civic participation.
The full campus report may be viewed online.