Published: May 23, 2024
UT Recognized for Its Democracy Action Plan
The University of Tampa has been recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for having a strong action plan to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement by promoting civic learning, political engagement and college student voter participation. UT was one of 124 colleges and universities nationwide to receive the Highly Established Action Plan (HEAP) seal.
The University of Tampa has been recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for having a strong action plan to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement.
Campus action plans are meant to be dynamic documents that outline a campus’ civic efforts through its leadership team, goals, strategies and tactics, and evaluation processes. They are developed every two years. UT also received the HEAP designation in 2022.
UT’s current campus action has four parts:
- It weaves voter education in the UT curriculum.
- Two staff positions have been restructured to include dedicated time for civic engagement in the position descriptions.
- A new website, UTampaVotes! has been created to equip students with voter education resources, aiding them in the voter registration process and guiding them on how to cast their ballot.
- A new student-led board to manage the UTampaVotes initiative gives students agency and has the goal to increase student involvement.
Ian McGinnity, director of community engagement, co-leads the UTampa Democracy Coalition with Kathryn VanderMolen, associate professor of political science and international studies. VanderMolen is the faculty director of the coalition, a service position.
“UT is committed to preparing students to be leaders who contribute to society, and this campus action plan directly supports that goal. We are eager to see civic engagement in action on campus in this important election year,” McGinnity said.
