Daniels reappointed to ALL IN Higher Ed Presidents’ Council, building on 2020 election successes in student voting, engagement

Purdue University President Mitch Daniels has been reappointed to the ALL IN Higher Education Presidents’ Council, a group formed in 2012 that has made significant strides in encouraging students to vote and engage with the democratic process.

The council leads more than 330 U.S. college and university presidents, provosts and chancellors who have committed to full student voter registration through its ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge and for broad participation in the upcoming 2022 midterm elections. 

“Higher education leaders have a civic responsibility to prepare their students to become responsible and engaged participants in our democratic process. Top on that list is in exercising their right to register and vote,” said Daniels, who served as the 2020 national spokesperson for All IN.

Historically, college students have voted at one of the lowest rates of any demographic group in the U.S. While turnout among college students jumped to a record 66% for the 2020 presidential election, the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education reports there is still work to be done to get students to continue to vote.

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“Together, university leaders must commit the time and resources that emphasize the value and importance of the student voice in our elections,” Daniels said. “We must help them become informed, engaged citizens and lifelong voters. It’s also our mission to empower our faculty, staff, students and civic stakeholders to come together and determine solutions to the problems we face as communities for improving our quality of life.”

Leading up to the 2020 general election, Purdue drafted a Voter Engagement Action Plan as part of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge to spur voter registration and turnout. The result: a 20-percentage point jump in student turnout — to 67% in 2020 vs. 47% for the 2016 election, said Melissa Gruver, associate director in the Civic Engagement & Leadership Development office at Purdue, who co-led Purdue’s 2020 efforts.

Purdue’s plan also sparked an increase in the overall registration rate among students to 86.4% from 79.3% in 2016. Meanwhile, undergraduate students voted at a rate of 59%, up from 48% in 2016, and the rate for graduate students jumped to 44% from 34% in 2016, she said.

In addition, the voting rate for Black students at Purdue was 45% in 2020 from 42% in 2016, Latino participation to 40% from 37%, and Asian and Asian American students to 20% from 15%, Gruver said.

For its efforts, Purdue’s 2020 action plan was selected the best in the Big Ten among the 12 conference universities that participated in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. The council established the ALL IN challenge to spur student voter engagement in 2016.

And Gruver looks for a repeat in the 2022 ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge after the success of the university’s participation two years ago.

“In true Boilermaker fashion, we are up to the challenge,” she said. “We know the importance of getting more and more students engaged in our election process, and the ALL IN challenge matters for student participation in our local, state and federal communities.”

In addition to Daniels, the 15-member ALL IN Higher Education Presidents’ Council includes presidents from Amherst College, Case Western Reserve University and Hamline University, as well as Prairie View A&M University, University of Massachusetts and Weber State University. Serving as council chair is Jonathan Alger, president of James Madison University.

The council’s primary tool is its Presidential Commitment statement, which encourages voter registration among partner institutions and participation in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. By signing the pledge two years ago, Purdue made it a priority to ensure all eligible students would be able to register to vote and cast informed ballots in the 2020 election and beyond.

In April 2021, Purdue launched the Civics Literacy Proficiency program, which is designed to enhance the educational experience of Purdue students and graduate a more informed citizenry The program is required for incoming freshmen who started in Fall 2021 and optional for all other students. Purdue students have three options to satisfy the requirement, which will lead to a notation of Civics Literacy Proficiency on their transcripts:

• Attending six approved civics-related events.
• Finishing one of these 13 approved courses.
• Completing 12 podcasts created by the Purdue Center for C-SPAN Scholarship and Engagement that use C-SPAN material.

Writer: Phillip Fiorini, 765-430-6189, pfiorini@purdue.edu 

Sources: Mitch Daniels
Melissa Gruver, 765-494-6823, mgruver@purdue.edu
Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, executive director, ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge 202-908-5226, jen.domagal-goldman@civicnation.org