Bringing Democracy To The Dorms: Making Civic Engagement Unavoidable

Posted by Forbes on September 2, 2025

It didn’t unfold at a rally or a lecture — it happened on a sidewalk. A student, on his way back from class paused, intrigued by the voter registration table (and the enticing offer of free donuts) we had set up outside his dorm. Ten minutes later, he walked away, registered, donut in hand, remarking how “surprisingly easy it was to participate.”

That moment wasn’t a one-off; rather, it was the result of a purposeful shift in strategy at the University of Oklahoma, where our student-led, nonpartisan initiative, OK Votes, made civic engagement something students couldn’t overlook and didn’t want to miss.

We called it “Bringing Democracy to the Dorms,” but it went far beyond that. We showed up in places where civic engagement isn’t expected: athletic practices, engineering club meetings, Howdy Week, dorm meetings, and classrooms well outside the political science department. We tabled — a lot — but not just in the student union. We were at the tutoring center, the flu clinic, the armory, band practice, and sorority chapter meetings. We met students in their world, on their own time. The outcome? Civic engagement became less of a seasonal campaign and more of an enduring cultural shift.

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