About Ask Every Student

Mission

Ask Every Student is a national joint initiative that facilitates collaboration between campus leaders and nonprofit partners to help campuses ask every student to participate in the democratic process and achieve full student student voter registration.

Vision

Every college and university student is asked by their institution of higher education to participate in our democracy in a meaningful way, through the seamless integration of processes that build the civic ethos of their campuses and empower students to register and vote.

History

February 2019

During the National Campaign for Political and Civic Engagement (NAC) annual conference at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, nonprofit and campus partners conceived the National Resource Consortium on Full Student Voter Participation (NRC) as a collaborative initiative to explore how nonpartisan campus-led voter engagement strategies could reach full student voter participation. 

Image description: Group photo from the 2019 NAC

May–July 2019

The Fair Election Center’s Campus Vote Project, NASPA and the NASPA LEAD Initiative, the Foundation for Civic Leadership and Mile 22 Associates moved the NRC initiative forward through a research endeavor. After informational interviews with the original 19 Codesigner Campuses*, the founding organizations published an Insight Brief during July 2019 that outlined initial findings and promising strategies for reaching full student voter participation.

*The 19 Codesigner Campuses are credited in the Insight Brief.

Image description: The Insight Brief Team

August-December 2019

In an effort to make these strategies adaptable and scalable for every institution, the NRC used a human-centered social design process to conduct ideation and prototyping sessions with over a dozen campus and organizational partners. In these sessions, students, faculty, staff, and advocates co-designed a variety of initial prototypes to aid campuses in applying full participation strategies to their contexts.

Image description: A “rapid prototype” of a video module concept created during an ideation session with campus leaders across the country during the 2019 National Conference on Citizenship.

January–May 2020

In the beginning of 2020, the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge and the Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition, a project of the National Conference on Citizenship, joined founding members NASPA and Campus Vote Project to establish what is now known as the Ask Every Student Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee officially adapted the NRC into the initiative’s current iteration, Ask Every Student, with the SLSV Coalition becoming its managing partner. With the launch of studentvoting.org and a call for nonprofit and campus partners to get involved, take action and apply for funding, Ask Every Student onboarded 8 nonprofit partners, 31 Codesigner Campuses and over 120 Commitment Campuses into its network.

Image description: A map depicting the geographical distribution of Commitment and Codesigner Campuses in 35 states + D.C.

June - August 2020

During the summer of 2020, the Codesigner Campuses took part in 12 design sessions, resulting in the launch of the human-centered design-oriented Ask Every Student Toolkit. The SLSV Coalition hired a full time Ask Every Student Program Manager to expand and manage the initiative. Additionally, 98 campuses, including 20 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), and 4 partners applied for and received grants to implement Ask Every Student strategies on their campuses. The SLSV Coalition raised and distributed $778,735.46 in funding directly to colleges, universities, and partner organizations participating in Ask Every Student.

Image description: Resources developed in collaboration with the Ask Every Student Codesigner Cohort during Summer 2020.

September - November 2020

In the fall of 2020, campuses received funding and implemented strategies with support from the AES Steering Committee and partner organizations. Additional partner organizations were onboarded. Campuses continued to take part in Open Hours and the AES Toolkit expanded to meet emerging needs. This all contributed to historic youth voter turnout in the 2020 election despite immense challenges faced due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Image Description: The Student Coalition at Indiana University Bloomington, a Codesigner Grant recipient, promoting voting early and voting safely during Fall 2020.

January - April 2021

The inaugural Codesigner Cohort completed its final eight design sessions and participated in a programmatic evaluation to iterate the program for 2022. Through these final sessions, Ask Every Student updated its core tools to advance voter parity, including the Faculty Champions Toolkit, First Step Form, AES Playbook, and Voter Info Walkthrough Presentation Template.

Image Description: Cover of the Ask Every Student Playbook.

April - July 2021

In 2021, Dr. Melissa Michelson, Dean of Arts & Sciences and Political Science Professor at Menlo College, led a study of more than 2,200 students at 14 AES campuses to learn more about the program’s impact on student voting and voting registration rates. The results were extraordinary, showing a significant and measurable impact on student registration and voting rates. Focus groups found that AES’ impact goes beyond the institution, with students often sharing information learned from AES to help off-campus family members register to vote.

Image Description: Infographic listing statistical results from the Menlo College study on Ask Every Student.

July - December 2021

Ask Every Student leadership applied lessons learned from 2020 to create an even better initiative for its campuses and partner organizations to participate in, including a Community Tier to increase accessibility for participating campuses and organizations. 49 new campuses and organizations joined the movement in 2021, growing the Ask Every Student to nearly 250 total campuses and organizations. 

Additionally, AES raised and distributed $95,000 to 23 campus partners, including 4 community colleges, 5 HBCUs and 3 additional MSI’s. On all 23 campuses selected, more than 50% of students qualify for federal financial aid.

Image Description: Students at Alabama A&M University register to vote.


2022 - Present

Ask Every Student continues to grow! Learn more and find out how you can get involved by clicking the button below.

 Further Reading