Oakland University named among America’s Best Colleges for Student Voting

Oakland University has been named to the 2022 Washington Monthly Best Colleges for Student Voting Honor Roll, a distinction awarded to higher education institutions that go above and beyond in turning students into citizens. This year’s honor roll recognized 230 schools out of 850 that received consideration.   

To make the student voting honor roll, universities met the following criteria: 

• Submitting 2020 and 2022 action plans to the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
  
  
• Signing up to receive data from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), which calculates college-specific registration and voting rates
  
  
• Making their 2018 and 2020 NSLVE data available to the public.

OU fulfilled all requirements and was recognized for the quality of its action plan by ALL IN, receiving a rating of "highly established" for 2022. The university was also noted for having a voter registration rate above 85%.

“Being placed on Washington Monthly's list of America’s Best Colleges for Student Voting is an important recognition for OU,” said Dave Dulio, professor of political science and director of OU’s Center for Civic Engagement. “We pride ourselves on being a steward of place. As part of this work we can, and should, be leaders in fostering a healthy economy and healthy environment, and we should also do our part to foster a healthy democracy. This is recognition of that effort.” 

OU continues to gain accolades for its commitment to promoting civic engagement among students. The university first appeared on the Best Colleges for Student Voting Honor Roll in 2018, and has been recognized as a Voter Friendly Campus by the Fair Election Center’s Campus Vote Project for the past two election cycles. 

To learn more about civic engagement opportunities at OU, visit oakland.edu/cce.