Ian Baucom, Higher Education Leader, Enterprising Administrator, and Prolific Scholar, Named President of Middlebury.
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Center for Community Engagement

Faculty Toolkit for Civic Engagement

Faculty are a key resource in supporting student engagement in the democratic process! Your work helps build students’ civic skills and identity.  Here are some resources to help you embed democratic engagement in your courses:

Welcome to the MiddVotes x Democracy Initiatives Faculty Toolkit for Civic Engagement. Our hope for this guide is to provide you with clear and concise voting information that can be easily added to your lectures, as well as resources for you should you want to take a deeper dive into building civic dialogue and engagement in the classroom. 

Want to access our faculty Canvas resources? Enroll in our Canvas course here!

Put Voting Info in Your Slide Deck

We have created a series of weekly single slides to throw into your classroom presentations with links to register to vote, check registration status, request an absentee ballot, find polling places and more! Low on text, with QR codes students can scan from their seats to find out more, these are a low-effort, high-impact way to make sure your students have voting on their minds!

Our Team - For YOU

The Democracy Initiatives team of student and professional staff are here to support your work fostering student civic engagement! We can help you brainstorm ideas, plan an event, or come talk with your students about voting. We are your connection with the wider community of practice, here at Middlebury and beyond, working to advance democratic participation and civic skills. Our Middlebury Does Democracy Campus Coalition of faculty, staff and students connect periodically through the academic year to share ideas, collaborate and explore needs for further development. Want to join the Campus Coalition? Let us know!

Our Work - With YOU

Annually, we develop and update the Middlebury College 2024 Democratic Action Plan, a robust roadmap for supporting student democratic participation. We work with higher education institutions around the country through our partnership with the Students Learn, Students Vote coalition, our participation in the All In Campus Challenge, and our leadership in NESCAC Votes. We partner with campus programs and faculty through the Davis Conflict Transformation Collaborative and our new initiative - the Middlebury Does Democracy Campus Coalition. Through these partnerships we are able to share and learn innovative approaches to student civic engagement, and enrich our own campus practices by bringing this learning and these resources back for you. 

In 2020, 97.6% of the eligible student body was registered to vote. In 2024, we are committed to making sure 100% of eligible students are registered to vote in the state of their choosing. Last spring we held monthly voter registration drives to register voters, answer electoral questions, and engage with the wider community. 

In addition to continuing to hold voter registration drives (throughout Orientation Week and around campus at least once per month), we are also supporting a range of campus events. At these drives and events we will provide electronic voter registration so students from all 50 states are able to register. 

Canvas Module Screenshot with Voting Information

Embed our Voting Info Module into your Canvas Course!

Support student civic engagement and offer detailed, vetted voting information right in your Canvas course, with the push of a button! We have developed this module to be easy to import, low burden for students to engage with, and full of all the critical information they need to be engaged in the democratic process. Contact Jason Duquette-Hoffman to get the module!

What You Need to Know: 

Who is Voting at Middlebury, Who Isn’t, and What Can We Do?

Middlebury is provided with comprehensive voting data completed by the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education (IDHE). These statistics allow us to personalize our action plan to address specific areas or demographics that have lower voting rates. 

In the 2020 national election, among Middlebury students*:

  • 85.7% of eligible and registered voters ended up voting in the elections 
  • 82% of first year students voted
  • 76% of 2nd/3rd/4th year students voted

Want to take a deeper dive into this data? Review the 2020 IDHE NSLVE Report

There is significant data that reports if someone has a plan to vote they are more likely to actually vote. A large part of our work over the past year and a half has focused on creating incentives to help the first year class pledge to vote. We have created a First Year Dorm Voting Competition where students in all four dorms pledge to vote and those with the most pledges wins a bonfire. Our first implementation, last year, was incredibly successful in creating conversation and engaging the community on voting practices. 

  • 65% of the student body does not vote in person

Middlebury is an institution that attracts a large portion of out-of-state students. This means that most of the student body votes by mail in their home state. Mail in ballot rules and deadlines differ significantly based on the state in which one is voting. Our goal is to continue to provide students with clear and concise information on mail in ballot deadlines in order to create a smooth and efficient process for them. 

On Middlebury’s campus, students of color access their vote at lower rates than their white peers. It is our collective work to reduce barriers, increase access and facilitate voting equity for every eligible student. Throughout the fall, we will be registering voters at a wide range of events across campus and building partnerships with cultural organizations and affinity groups. 

*All data is from the 2020 NSLVE Report completed by the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education and the Tufts College of Civic Life 

What resources are there for you to more easily support student voting and civic engagement in your classrooms?

First, there are a wealth of resources on campus to support democratic and civic engagement in your classroom! From classroom visits to event support with voter registration and voting education, contact us to work with your classes and events. Beyond voter education and engagement, there are a range of resources on campus that support civic dialogue, dialogue across difference and conflict transformation. 

Campus partners include:

In addition to the expertise and support available to you here at Middlebury, here are some resources we have curated from the wider community of practice:

Election Information

Classroom Implementation

Classroom Dialogue 

Topic-Based Election Information

Center for Community Engagement

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