The Ask Every Student Framework
We believe that the core of reaching full student voter registration of eligible students at colleges and universities comes down to…
Integrating voter registration into existing processes that reach every student.
This means adding a voter registration touch point as part of processes that every student has to go through while attending your institution. These processes include but are not limited to core classes, orientation, academic advising, and parking pass pickup.
Through your chosen process, accessing a few minutes of individualized focus from every student.
This means ensuring that students are spending at least 3-5 minutes of individualized or 1-on-1 focus discussing their democratic engagement plan.
During those few minutes, preparing each student to confidently navigate the democratic process, beginning with voter registration.
This should ideally take place as a verbal conversation between a student trained in voter registration and a student or small group of students. This can be adapted into other forms of individualized outreach for campuses where that isn’t possible.
Stages for implementing an Ask Every Student strategy
Integrate
Integrating your voter participation efforts into existing processes can take place in whatever contexts work best for your institution. These existing processes can include universal classes, orientation, welcome week, and academic advising.
Often times, the users for this stage tend to be faculty and staff members from both academic and student affairs.
As an example, within the 2020 Ask Every Student Toolkit, there are tools to help you build a Faculty Champion program at your institution to integrate voter registration efforts into the classroom.
Execute
Executing Ask Every Student voter participation efforts is the front line work. This includes preparing students to navigate the electoral process beginning with voter registration, training students, staff and faculty about the processes, and strategically utilizing civic technology.
Oftentimes, the users for this stage tend to be students, faculty, and staff.
Within the 2020 Ask Every Student Toolkit, there are tools to support recruiting and training individuals to facilitate student voter registration, templates to create a state-specific student voter walkthrough, and guides to help you strategically utilize civic technology.
Institutionalize
Institutionalizing includes making an institutional commitment to full student voter participation, creating cross-campus coalitions, establishing a meaningful nonpartisan culture around voting that includes non-eligible student voters, and making sure student leaders are supported in your voting efforts.
Oftentimes, the users for this stage come from the administration, but can also include faculty, staff, and students.
Coalition building tools and other institutionalizing-centered tools will be developed for Spring 2021.
