Seamlessly Integrating TurboVote into Campus Life
Wagner College aids its in-person civic engagement efforts by utilizing TurboVote to digitally engage students
Dr. Bernadette Ludwig and the WagnerVotes (WV) team at Wagner College on Staten Island have developed a multifaceted, highly effective approach to TurboVote implementation. Their strategy engaged nearly 15% of Wagner’s total student body in 2022, who now receive guidance from TurboVote to vote in every election—local to national.
Increasing online engagement efforts
WagnerVotes offers most of its voter education and registration events in person, but since 2020 has been pursuing more digital engagement options.
In person outreach can be tricky, “We tried to have a table and stop people as they walked around on campus; we had candy, stickers, and so on, but students felt they were ‘too busy, don’t have time [to engage with us],’ etc.,” Dr. Ludwig said.
WV explored ways to engage students online, including social media posts and emails, but experienced a great deal of success by plugging TurboVote into existing practices and courses at the school.
Dr. Ludwig and a student leader wrote to Wagner’s Provost asking for the ability to integrate TurboVote into the school’s LMS (Learning Management Software). They shared how TurboVote could help students more easily register to vote, check their registration, get election reminders, and more. Their efforts paid off, and this component of their LMS went live in 2022!
Dr. Ludwig also teaches an undergraduate senior capstone course, which includes a requirement that students must help fellow students sign up with TurboVote as part of a class assignment. In addition, capstone classes across departments compete to see who has the highest number of TurboVote signups.
“In a class setting,” she explains, “a professor can encourage students to participate, and of course the reverse can be true as well.”
Wagner College shares its TurboVote link within its learning management platform.
Campus groups compete for TurboVote signups
In 2022 and in previous years, WV voter registration events have included the Wagner football team. Student athletes who play offensive positions compete against the defense to help register the most first-year students to vote with TurboVote. Other campus student organizations and athletic groups participate in engagement efforts, as well. These efforts combined have made it so that some participating first-year student communities had a 100% TurboVote signup rate. Referral codes were used to track who got the most signups.
Putting it all together
The key reason Wagner’s TurboVote implementation program has been so successful is the collaboration between a faculty leader and dedicated students who lead the WagnerVotes program, who in turn work with campus groups and other collaborators to create a culture of civic participation on campus.
“I am glad that this tool exists!” says Dr. Ludwig, noting further that as a full-time faculty member at the school, and with regularly-transitioning support from other staff and students, it would be difficult to accomplish all that their civic engagement team does without TurboVote.
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