As one of the country’s top academic institutions for research and innovation, the University of Pittsburgh has long held a commitment to civic engagement and is committed to working on a University-wide level to create a more civically engaged institution.
PittVotes is housed by the Office of PittServes within the Division of Student Affairs. The initiative is made up of a Graduate Student Assistant, several student fellows, and a professional staff member overseeing PittVotes as part of their job responsibilities.
Pitt Votes is affiliated with national partners to collaborate on our voter engagement work, including ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, Campus Vote Project, Campus Elections Engagement Project, and the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSVLE).
Launched in 2013, NSLVE is a service to colleges and universities interested in learning their students’ aggregate voter registration and turnout rates in national elections since 2012. With around 10 million college student records for federal elections starting in 2012, NSLVE is also a significant database for research. Learn more about NSLVE here, and check out the University of Pittsburgh’s recent NSLVE data below. We are grateful to The Institute for Democracy & Higher Education (IDHE) at Tufts University for all of their work that goes into NSLVE data for well over 1,000 campuses
Democratic Engagement Action Plan
Every two years, the PittVotes team produces a Voter Engagement Action Plan, an initiative hosted by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge that asks colleges and universities to lay out the context, goals, and strategies as they relate to voter engagement on their campuses. See the most recent Action Plan below!
For this plan, the University of Pittsburgh earned the Highly Established Action Plan Seal from ALL IN. This seal recognizes higher education institutions with strong action plans to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement by promoting civic learning, political engagement, and college student voter participation. We are honored to have received this recognition and aim to execute the plan for the betterment of the entire University of Pittsburgh community.
