Elections and Democracy
NC Campus Compact seeks to improve civic life by actively engaging our members institutions in initiatives that help develop and promote practices and habits of democracy. This includes election engagement, census engagement, and civil discourse and dialogue.
In 2008, we began partnering with the Campus Election Engagement Project (CEEP), a national, nonpartisan effort to help colleges and universities involve students in elections. CEEP produces voter education resources, including state and national candidate and issue guides; provides paid fellowships or mini-grants to students and campuses to expand voter engagement efforts; and sponsors a network of organizers who consult with campuses about how to institutionalize and expand student voting and electoral engagement. Funding from CEEP has allowed us to disseminate over $60,000 in mini-grants to campuses throughout the state, host Election Engagement Fellows in 2016, and host the annual NC College Voter Summit, started in 2016.
NC Collegiate Citizenship Project (NC-CCP)
In summer 2020, thanks to funding from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, NC Campus Compact launched the NC-CCP to promote election engagement and civil discourse and dialogue on member institutions throughout the state.
NC Census Fellows & the #MakeNCCount Video Contest
In spring 2020, NC Campus Compact developed and hosted the NC Census Fellows program. These students worked to mobilize their campuses and community to ensure a complete census count. Funding was provided by the NC Counts Coalition.
- Meet the Fellows
- Read Fellowship highlights
- See the #NCCensusFellow social media campaign. Twitter │ Instagram
We also partnered with the NC Counts Coalition to sponsor the #MakeNCCount Video Contest. These videos, targeting college students, provide information about the census in creative and fun ways. There were two categories for contest submissions: Informational and Inspirational. Each winner received a cash prize. The winners were:
- 1st place Informational category: Deja Mayfield, North Carolina A&T State University
- 2nd place Informational category: Love Cesar, NC A & T State University
- Inspirational category winner: Lauren Bagby, Winston-Salem State University
Learn more and view the videos
NC College Voter Summit
Every September, since 2016, NC Campus Compact hosts a convening of students, faculty, and staff who lead non-partisan, campus-wide voter engagement efforts. With the help of national and state partners, participants learn and share innovative strategies and practical information to support college voter registration, voter education, and electoral participation.
NC Campus Voting Coalition
Since 2012, we have helped facilitate conversations among a group of
organizations focused on getting college students engaged in
voting. The 2019 Coalition members include ALL IN Campus Democracy
Challenge; Blueprint NC; Campus Election Engagement
Project; Campus Vote Project; Common Cause NC;
Democracy NC; NC Campus Compact; NC PIRG; You Can
Vote; and, Young Invincibles. The NC Campus Voting
Coalition meets monthly virtually to share resources, individual
projects, and help design the NC College Voter Summit.
Election Engagement Resources
Campuses seeking to expand or deepen their election engagement efforts can learn more from these resources and organizations:
AASC&U American Democracy Project
All In Campus Democracy Challenge
CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement)
