Washington, D.C.  – Western Carolina University was today among four Southern Conference institutions that earned the Highly Established Action Plan Seal for developing a strong action plan in encouraging college student voter turnout during the 2024 general election as recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
 
WCU was joined by peer institutions East Tennessee State, Mercer, and UNC Greensboro in receiving the recognition from ALL IN.
 
ALL IN has developed this seal of recognition for higher education institutions with strong action plans to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement by promoting civic learning, political engagement, and college student voter participation. Action plan strength is determined by reviewing campus action plans with the Strengthening American Democracy Action Planning Rubric.
 
Additionally, ALL IN announced that preliminary analysis shows that campuses that are highly engaged in the ALL IN programming had 2022 campus voter turnout rates that were five percentage points higher than campus not engaged in ALL IN. 
 
More than 1,060 institutions enrolling more than 10 million students participate in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, which supports colleges and universities in achieving excellence in nonpartisan student voter engagement. Western Carolina is among 36 colleges and universities across North Carolina participating in the ALL IN Democracy Challenge.
 
The full list of winners can be found here. 
 
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ABOUT SoCon Votes: SoCon Votes is the first Division I Athletic Conference Championship for democratic engagement. This program supports the 80,000 students in the Southern Conference to become active and engaged citizens. Each of the 10 schools in the Southern Conference is vying for the conference championship for Highest Voter Turnout or Most Improved Voter Turnout. 
  
ABOUT ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge: The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) is a national nonpartisan initiative of Civic Nation, a 501(c)(3) organization. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge strives to change civic culture and institutionalize democratic engagement activities and programs on college campuses, making voter participation a defining feature of campus life. 
  
ALL IN, in collaboration with over 1,050 higher education institutions, seeks to make participation in local, state, and federal elections a social norm; substantially increase the number of college students who are democratically engaged on an ongoing basis, during and between elections, and not just at the polls, and; make educating for democratic engagement on college campuses an accepted and expected part of the culture and curriculum so that students graduate with the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and values needed to be an informed and active citizen.