Building Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Campus Coalitions for Full Participation
What is a campus voting coalition?
A coalition is a group of individuals and/or organizations with a common interest who agree to work together toward a common goal. That goal could, for example, be as narrow as obtaining funding for a specific project/campus effort, or as broad as trying to permanently improve the overall quality of services for people in the community. The Strengthening American Democracy Action Planning Guide expands further on campus voting coalitions specifically:
“Including representatives from on-campus departments and student groups, as well as off-campus organizations, ensures efforts are collaborative and coordinated, and that a variety of perspectives are taken into consideration. The working group should reflect your campus and community, with intentional and equitable inclusion of diverse voices. Campus coalitions can grow and evolve over time to best meet the civic learning and democratic engagement needs of your institution. The group should strive to build a leadership team over time that is reflective of your campus community including diverse partners. Beyond the recruitment of diverse working group members, it’s important to consider and describe how exactly members will be involved in order to leverage their strengths and promote inclusivity as central to your success. Keep continuity year-to-year. It's always hard to start a program from scratch. When you are building your voter engagement efforts, consider ways to keep it going strong year-to-year. Importantly, if your coalition includes student leaders, be aware when there will be turnover because of graduations. Succession planning can be a key feature to ensure that the work continues especially when transitions occur.”
– Strengthening American Democracy Guide, p. 13
Campus Coalition Building Case Studies
In Fall 2021, Ana Guevara, Maddie Wolf, and Liana Keesing from the SLSV Coalition Resources & Support Subcommittee interviewed local leaders from 11 diverse campuses across the country to learn about their different campus voting coalition models, barriers, and opportunities. Check out these Campus Coalition Case Studies graphics to learn different campuses’ approaches.
Campuses interviewed include Weber State University, Columbia College Chicago, University of Pittsburgh, Miami Dade College, Maryland Institute College of Art, Stanford University, University of Vermont, University of Texas at Austin, North Carolina A&T University, Cedar Crest College, and Clark Atlanta University.
How Weber State University’s Campus Voting Coalition Advances Voter Parity and Inclusivity
By 2022 Codesigner Dr. Leah Murray from Weber State University
Voter engagement work tends to reflect the predominantly white student body populations at many of our campuses. Because we are seeking to register as many students as possible and many of our students are white, we are not always thinking specifically about how to reach out to students of color in our spaces. Many of us think if we are engaging students at all then we are engaging all students. However, research has shown that our students of color, our students who are first-generation, our students from other countries, generally any student who does not fit the dominant identity, can be lost in the way higher education engages students. This is also true for voter engagement, so we need to think specifically about how we engage these students.
The coalition can go a long way to helping us bring an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) lens to the work that we do by making sure stakeholders who are experts in EDI are in our work. They will ensure we are thinking about all of our students and designing voter engagement tools that will welcome them all into our republic.
For example, we have many students who are of Mexican descent and Mexico invites and welcomes people who are first or second generation Mexican emigres to vote in their state and national elections. Students Learn Students Vote has fostered a conversation with the Mexican consulate about how to connect our students and their families and communities with Mexico so they can vote remotely. This work has the potential of increasing the scope of voter engagement to include citizens of the world.
Coalition Partnership Mapping Activity
Use this activity to strategically determine which partners to bring into your campus voting coalition and develop an outreach plan. This activity was developed in collaboration between the SLSV Coalition Resources & Support Subcommittee and 2022 Codesigner Leah Murray from Weber State University.
This activity includes:
Getting Started Worksheet to define your coalition purpose, scope and gaps
Partnership Mapping Worksheet to identify potential coalition partners
Digital Partnership Building Map to set strategic partner outreach priorities
Partner Outreach Planner and Tracker to track partner outreach.
SLSV Coalition Resources & Campus Support Manager Maddie Wolf presents on behalf of herself and 2022 Codesigner Dr. Leah Murray from Weber State University about the Coalition Partnership Mapping activity.
Coalition Partnership Mapping Activity Materials
-
Getting Started Worksheet
Use this worksheet to identify your coalition goals, gaps, and purpose. This information helps you make sure the partners you are bringing into your coalition represent the groups of students you want to equitably include and the campus and community partners who can help you achieve your goals and purpose.
-
Partnership Mapping Worksheet
Use this Partnership Mapping Worksheet to identify which partners you want to focus your outreach efforts on based on your goals, gaps, and purpose.
-
Digital Partnership Building Map
Use this template map and instructions to determine how to prioritize the partners you’ve identified on your worksheet based on how important they are to your coalition’s goals and how supportive they are to the work.
-
Partner Outreach Planner and Tracker
Once you’ve identified the partners you want to bring into your coalition, with your Coalition leadership, use the Outreach Planning Tracker to identify the points of contact, the specific types of asks you have for them, and how you plan on reaching out to them.