TU receives nonpartisan civic engagement award
By Jaylen Beaner-Walker, contributing writer
Towson University was awarded the 2024 Highly Established Action Plan Award by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. The seal recognizes universities that show strong action plans to increase nonpartisan democratic civic engagement on campus.
TU is among nearly 200 campuses to have received the award, and did so by its renewal of the Voter Friendly Campus designation.
The Voter Friendly Campus designation must be renewed every two years based on the Higher Education Act of 1965. TU has completed phase two of the five step renewal process for the designation. For that phase, TU submitted an action plan following the Strengthening American Democracy Guide (SADG) provided by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
TU’s action plan earned 36 out of the 31.5 points needed to receive the Highly Established Action Plan Seal.
“The award recognizes the breadth and depth of civic engagement work at TU, which includes work done by faculty, staff, and students,” Director of Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility Romy Hübler and Assistant Director Heather Polonsky said in a joint statement.
The CESR office at TU has further pushed its civic engagement efforts through the TU Votes Coalition, a group comprised of staff and students who work to boost student interest in civic learning and democratic engagement through various opportunities on campus.
Towson also has a 2024 Campus Democratic Engagement Action Plan, which outlines five distinct goals of increasing civic learning and student interest in voting by 2034. It includes incorporating civic learning into the first-year experience, into the general education curriculum, increase student voter registration and turnout and more.
Implementation of the action plan began this year on July 1.
