Mount Ida College Recognized as Voter Friendly Campus

NEWTON, Mass. - March 21, 2017 - PRLog -- Mount Ida College is now one of 83 campuses in 23 states designated as a "Voter-Friendly Campus." The initiative, led by national nonpartisan organizations Campus Vote Project (CVP) and NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, held participating institutions accountable for planning and implementing practices that encourage their students to register and vote in the 2016 general election and in the coming years.

The mission of the Voter Friendly Campus designation is to bolster efforts that help students overcome barriers to participating in the political process.  Mount Ida was evaluated based on a campus plan about how they would engage student voters in the fall of 2016, how it facilitated voter engagement efforts and a final analysis of the efforts.The designation is valid through December 2018.

Mount Ida College recently created the Center for Community Engagement (CCE) and under its auspices launched a months-long effort to promote civic engagement, the right of each citizen to vote  and what it means to accept that responsibility.

"The faculty and staff of CCE worked alongside the Mustang Involvement Center, Library, and Associated Student Government to implement this plan throughout the fall semester and beyond. Initiatives included workshops, lunch and learns, and a mock-voting day," says Gregg Grenier, Director of Community Engagement.  "We sponsored 26 programs that reached 832 participants (students, staff, and faculty) and worked diligently to help our students become informed, registered and also assured transportation to and from the polls on Election Day.  We offered opportunities to view the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates in our campus theater and convened on election night to watch as the results came in."

"Recognition of our community as a 'Voter Friendly Campus' is important on so many levels: as confirmation of the growth of our civic engagement program and the involvement of our students at this crucial moment in the history of the republic," says Barry Brown, President of Mount Ida.

The institutions designated Voter Friendly Campuses represent a wide range of two-year, four-year, public, private, rural, and urban campuses, with a total enrollment of nearly 1.4 million students.

(www.mountida.edu)