ASSESSMENT
We developed this Campus Electoral Engagement Self-Assessment to help campuses identify which non-partisan, high-impact electoral engagement practices currently take place at their institution, and which could be added.
The tool is meant to serve as a starting point for faculty, staff, and students to develop a strategic plan to enhance student engagement in elections at the local, state, and federal levels.
The self-assessment looks at four aspects of electoral engagement on college campuses: campus commitment, student voter registration, student education on candidates and electoral issues, and mobilizing students to vote. Each of these four categories includes high-impact electoral engagement practices that many campuses utilize; however, the goal of this self-assessment is not to prescribe a one size fits all approach for every campus. Rather, in recognizing that each campus is unique and has its own culture, it is our hope that campuses will assess their current efforts and then explore which efforts can be improved and which additional engagement approaches can be implemented.
Ultimately, we believe that each campus should be dedicated to not only helping students register to vote but also to providing them with resources, information, and opportunities necessary to educate themselves on the choices, get involved in the process as volunteers, and ultimately cast their ballot ensuring their voice is part of our democratic dialogue. Further, we believe that non-partisan electoral engagement is a key element of general civic engagement and that campuses have a responsibility to engage students in our democracy. Our core engagement resource, 7 Key Ways to Act, provides concrete ways to do this.
To get started, download the assessment and email us to be matched with one of our staff. They will then review the assessment with you and help you plan activities that best suit your campus.
NOTE: All responses shared with CEEP will be kept private, used only to help our campus partners enhance their electoral engagement efforts.
“We really appreciated the CEEP Campus Election Engagement Assessment tool to identify our current practices and identify new practices. I completed the assessment and also asked my student leaders to complete it and we compared our results. We used our results to assist with our goal setting for the upcoming election cycle and we’re excited about the new practices we identified from the tool.” – Paul Valdez, Associate Director, Center for Community and Civic Engagement, Bowling Green State University
