COLLEGE STUDENTS GET OUT THE VOTE in RECORD NUMBERS 

“They” said young people did not care enough to register to vote. 

“They” said young people would not follow through… and vote… early… nor on Election Day. 

“They” were wrong.

Campus Compact was founded on this very notion that young people care, very deeply, about the civic health of their communities.  Over the Compact’s more than 20 year history working on civic engagement among college campuses, we’ve come to know that when students are given a positive and constructive opportunity to engage in their communities, they respond, en masse.  In Colorado for example, college students volunteer more than any other age group in the state, and they volunteer among the highest rates in the country, according to the UPS Foundation’s Impact Survey.

The 2008 Presidential Election has proven the power of the collective college student voice when they are motivated to engage.  In the 2004 Presidential election, the Pew Charitable Trusts invested in college student voter engagement participation among youth ages 18 – 35.  These investments helped grow youth participation by 11% in Colorado alone.   National media has already attributed the youth turnout as a significant part of the largest voter turnout in our nation’s history.

Please join Campus Compact in thanking our college student Get Out The Vote organizers and their campus advisors from Campus Compact member campuses who received funding support from gifts facilitated by civic author and philanthropist, Paul Loeb.

Colorado Campus Compact grantees:

When campaigns choose to go positive, college students will engage.  When college students engage, the course of history can be changed.  We’ve seen it on more than a third of our nation’s college campuses who are members of Campus Compact.