National award recognizes excellence in student voter engagement
At the 2019 ALL IN Challenge Awards Ceremony held to recognize colleges and universities committed to increasing college student voting rates, Dakota County Technical College received a gold seal for achieving a student rate between 40 percent and 49 percent. DCTC was honored during the ceremony November 12, 2019, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. A full list of seal awardees can be viewed at Seal Awardees.
“Our institution is proud to receive this national recognition for our efforts,” said Anne Johnson, MBA, DCTC associate vice president of student affairs. “Our faculty, staff, administrators and students are committed to working together to reduce apathy, increase engagement, and graduate civic-minded students prepared to solve the most pressing issues challenging our country and the world.”
Student participation in elections has increased from the 2014 midterm election to the recent 2018 midterm election. According to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, a Tufts University Institute for Democracy & Higher Education initiative, voter turnout at the more than 1,000 institutions participating in the study increased by 21 points from 19 percent to 40 percent.
The college’s 2018 National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) Report notes the DCTC student voting rate was 46.5 percent the 2018 midterms. That’s a 17.5 percent increase from 2014; the 2018 voting rate for all institutions was 39.1 percent.
“We are excited to honor Dakota County Technical College with an ALL IN Challenge gold seal in recognition of their intentional efforts to increase democratic engagement and full voter participation,” said Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, executive director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “More institutions like DCTC are changing culture on campus by institutionalizing nonpartisan democratic engagement efforts that are resulting in the incredible student voter turnout rates that we’ve seen across the country.”
More about the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge is a nonpartisan, national initiative recognizing and supporting campuses as they work to increase nonpartisan demcoratic engagement and full student voter participation. The Challenge encourages higher education institutions to help students form the habits of active and informed citizenship, and make democratic participation a core value on their campus.
More than 560 campuses, enrolling more than 6.2 million students, have joined the Challenge since its launch in summer 2016.
Learn more about Student Life at DCTC by contacting:
Anna Voight
Associate Director of Student Life
651-423-8649
