Democracy Matters Podcast: Episode 8, So Much Noise and No One Needs A Broadcast Message

Posted by James Madison Center for Civic Engagement on August 13, 2019

Student attention is a scarce commodity. What are the best opportunities for capturing student attention to engage them in civic learning and democratic engagement? In this episode we talk with Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, Executive Director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, and Michael Peshkin, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University. As a first step to deeper engagement in civic life, Northwestern University registers every incoming student to vote during orientation, and voter registration exceeds 96%. The institutionalization of voter registration began with a Mechanical Engineering professor and students. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge encourages higher education institutions to help students form the habits of active and informed citizenship, make democratic participation a core value on their campus, and cultivate generations of engaged citizens who are essential to a healthy democracy.

More info:

ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge

National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE)

Northwestern: Student Voter Registration Exceeds 96 Percent (video);

How one university teaches its students to vote (and it’s old-school)

Local and Absentee Voter Registration Drives on a College Campus by Kim Castle, Janice Levy and Michael Peshkin

The Cost of Convenience: An Experiment Showing E-Mail Outreach Decreases Voter Registration by Elizabeth Bennion (Indiana University) and David Nickerson (Notre Dame)