Chapman named Voter Friendly Campus for fourth year

Chapman’s Student Union team held a voter registration drive from April 17 to April 21 to not only celebrate the university’s Voter Friendly Campus recognition from the Campus Vote, but also to encourage more students on campus to register to vote. Photo from The Panther Archives

Most young people in the U.S. don’t vote. Low turnouts year and year have spurred efforts to get more members Generation Z in the voting booth.

For the fourth year in a row, Chapman University has been recognized as a Voter Friendly Campus by the Campus Vote Project, showcasing the university’s efforts to encourage more students on campus to vote.

Because of the recognition, Chapman’s Student Union team hosted a weeklong voter registration drive from April 17 to April 21 in the Argyros Forum Student Union in order to increase student voter participation across campus.

Karla Monterrey, the program coordinator for the Department of Student Engagement, has been working toward this recognition by implementing voter programs on campus and entering Chapman into the running for the recognition in the first place.

“Chapman has made a strong statement about our civic mission to prepare students to be engaged participants in our democracy, and (the university) is eager to continue engaging students through 2023, 2024 and beyond,” Monterrey told The Panther. 

Chapman is one of only seven California universities named a Voter Friendly Campus. The university also received the designation in the 2017-2018, 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 academic years. 

The designation is given to colleges and universities across the U.S. based on the campus’s plan to creatively engage students to vote and encourage high student turnout at various elections.

The Voter Friendly Campus designation aims to bolster university efforts to help students overcome barriers that may prevent them from participating in the political process every year, not just during years featuring federal elections. 

The institutions designated “Voter Friendly Campuses” represent a wide range of two-year, four-year, public, private, rural and urban campuses, collectively serving over 3.5 million students. 

According to Monterrey, Chapman was evaluated for the designation based on a written plan in accordance with how the university planned to register, educate and increase turnout numbers among student voters in 2022. 

The written plan also showcased how Chapman facilitated voter engagement efforts on campus and included a final analysis and report of those efforts, like voter registration drives and implementing polling places on campus for city, state-wide and general elections. 

To celebrate the university’s voting efforts, a voter registration drive took place in the Argyros Forum Student Union last week to register more Chapman students to vote via Turbovote. The drive also included different activities, such as a “Parks and Recreation” screening, free burritos  and various tabling opportunities where students could win prizes.

“(The Student Union team) hopes that all the efforts we make to host registration drives and civic engagement events will interest students in participating in the election process,” Monterrey said. “The assistants do an incredible job of hosting events that allow students to register to vote, as well as learn about their local government and how they can participate in their community.”

The team also hosted a weeklong giveaway for a pair of AirPods Maxes in order to encourage more students to come out and register to vote.

“(This designation) indicates the important role that students at Chapman have to make their voices heard across the nation and how every single vote matters,” said Angelique Acuna, a 2022 Chapman alumna with a bachelor’s in film studies and art history who now works as an administrative assistant in the university’s Center for Global Education. 

“From having gone to Chapman myself, I’ve seen how helpful civic engagement efforts on campus have been in giving students the resources they need to effectively vote in various elections.”

The primary goal during the voter registration drive had been to register 500 students to vote via TurboVote. 

According to Monterrey, while the team did not reach its goal of registering 500 students throughout the week, there will still be the opportunity for many more civic engagement efforts and events to encourage student voter turnout in the upcoming fall semester. 

“I felt motivated to have my voice be heard, and I know many other students on campus feel the same way,” said Taylor Michel, a junior political science and strategic and corporate communication double major. “I am proud that Chapman is providing us with the tools and the encouragement we need to effectively participate as valuable members of our society.”