Northern Essex Community College was recently recognized for the high student voting rate of its students in the 2018 midterm elections.
The college received a silver seal for Excellence in Student Voter Engagement in the 2019 ALL IN Challenge Awards.
Close to 32% of Northern Essex students voted in the 2018 midterm elections which was a more than 11% increase over the 2014 midterm elections.
Silver seals were presented to all colleges with a voting rate between 30% and 39%.
The All IN Campus Democracy Challenge is a nonpartisan, national initiative recognizing and supporting campuses as they work to increase nonpartisan democratic 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.
Janel D’Agata-Lynch, coordinator of civic engagement, service-learning and community resources at Northern Essex, said she is ‘thrilled’ with the 2018 results and hopes to keep the momentum going for the 2020 elections.
D’Agata-Lynch was hired in 2015 and is responsible for promoting and supporting civic engagement on campus. In 2016, the college created an Election Working Group, including faculty, staff and students, focused on educating the campus on election issues, including ballot initiatives.
One of the group’s main goals is “encouraging faculty to bring the election into the classroom,” says D’Agata-Lynch. For example, Professor Steve Russell’s American Government and Politics class has been researching each of the candidates in the 2020 presidential primary and will be sharing their positions on topics such as climate change, immigration, and health care at a campus wide forum on Thursday, Dec. 5 from 8-9:15 a.m., in room 244 of the Dimitry Building, 45 Franklin St., Lawrence.
Professor Richard Padova has invited all presidential primary candidates to visit the campus for forums, which are being scheduled now through the primary.
The college is also sponsoring voting registration events on both campuses.