ECU joins campuses nationwide in effort to support voting

East Carolina University is one of more than 250 campuses in 38 states and the District of Columbia designated as a Voter Friendly Campus through 2024. 

Two national nonpartisan organizations — the Fair Elections Center Campus Vote Project and NASPA, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education — led the initiative, which held participating institutions accountable for planning and implementing practices that encouraged their students to register and vote in 2022 and future elections. 

The Voter Friendly Campus designation recognizes ECU’s bolstered efforts to help students overcome barriers to participating in the political process. ECU was evaluated based on a campus plan to register, educate and encourage student voter turnout in 2022. Additional factors included how ECU facilitated voter engagement efforts on campus and a final analysis of its efforts. 

“We are so excited to receive this recognition for our work at ECU,” said Dennis McCunney, intercultural affairs director. “This is a product of a team effort — from community partners like the Pitt County Board of Elections to our student democracy leaders to our professional staff and senior campus leaders. At ECU, our entire campus community is deeply committed to working together to strengthen our democracy and remember that we have a shared future. This recognition is only one step along that critically important journey.” 

As part of the effort to be designated a Voter Friendly Campus, ECU’s Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement continues to provide nonpartisan voter registration and civic engagement opportunities for students, including multiple ways for students to get registered to vote and educated about the process, a Citizen U workshop series, a civility program called Dinner and Discourse, and an alternative break experience that has a civic engagement focus.  

Institutions designated as Voter Friendly Campuses represent a wide range of two-year, four-year, public, private, rural and urban campuses, collectively serving more than 3.5 million students. 

For more information contact Alex Dennis, Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, at 252-737-4988 or dennisa15@ecu.edu. 

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East Carolina University News Services
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Phone: 252-328-6481
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Contact: Alex Dennis, Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, 252-737-4988,  dennisa15@ecu.edu