The OAC, a proud participant of the All In Campus Democracy Challenge, a national awards program recognizing colleges and universities for their commitment to increase student voting rates, held its inaugural OAC Votes Summit on Tuesday, August 4.
The All In Challenge was spearheaded by the leadership of Mount Union and endorsed by the OAC Presidents Council last spring.
The Challenge, initiated by Lori Kumler, Associate Professor at Mount Union, and Abby Schroeder, Director of the Regula Center for Public Service and Civic Engagement, will help students become active, informed citizens and make democratic participation a campus core value. Campus leaders will tap into the student-athlete population to help achieve this goal.
"The summit successfully launched our first ever OAC All In Challenge competition on student voter engagement,” said Kumler. “In his keynote, OAC Commissioner Tim Gleason spoke of the OAC’s ability to connect student-athletes within and among campuses. At the end, I think we were all energized and excited to bring back ideas to our own campuses."
The summit was led by Stephanie King, Director of Strategic Initiatives for All In Campus Democracy Challenge/Civic Nation. This virtual event was attended by faculty, staff, and students from across all 10 campuses and special guest Dylan Sellers of the Campus Vote Project. The day provided opportunities to build relationships with counterparts on other campuses and to share ideas, resources and best practices to build action plans and campus coalitions.
"Institutions in the Ohio Athletic Conference are committed to engaging their students, faculty, staff and their broader communities in the electoral process,” said King. “At the All In Campus Democracy Challenge we were thrilled to be a part of the inaugural OAC Voting Summit to be a resource for these institutions as they engage in nonpartisan efforts to register, educate, and turnout voters. With the leader of these campuses and the OAC, we're optimistic that we'll see an increase in engagement in the 2020 general election and those that follow".
Currently, there are more than 650 colleges and universities participating in the All In Campus Democracy Challenge
