National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE)

Here is an opportunity that you won’t want to miss. In 2013, Tufts University and CIRCLE launched a national study of college student voting rates called the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE). Nearly 600 campuses are currently participating, and we encourage your institution to join the study as well. This opportunity is free, confidential, easy, and protective of your students’ privacy.

In 2012 a call to action went out to the higher education community with the publication of “A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy’s Future.” The report lays out specific steps “to make college students’ civic learning and democratic engagement a pervasively embraced educational priority and a resource for democracy.” The national conversation that followed was only the first step.

The next step is using programs like NSLVE to evaluate which strategies to increase student democratic engagement are most effective so they can be supported and spread to as many campuses as possible.

NSLVE provides you with an unprecedented opportunity to learn in aggregate numbers:

• how many of your students are eligible to register to vote,
• how many registered and voted,
• where your students voted (locally or out-of-state),
• the method your students voted (regular or absentee ballot), and
• voting rates broken down by specific demographic and academic information such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, field of study, and class level.

You will receive this information in a confidential report tailored for your institution.  You can see a sample here.

To ensure that your students’ privacy rights are fully protected, NSLVE researchers work with de-identified student lists. Your registration and voting rates will be known only to NSLVE researchers and will remain confidential. Reports go to only one person on your campus, you or your designee.

Joining the study is easy. Simply complete this authorization form and email it to nslve@tufts.edu. This is not a survey, and you do not need to compile student lists or records. For more information, see this FAQ or contact Ishara Casellas Connors, NSLVE associate director.

To receive your 2012 and 2014 voting rates, you must sign up by March 31, 2015.