Quick Hits: Data & Info
Are Clemson students registered to vote? Do they turn out to vote? Are there differences based on major course of study? Check out our reports below.
Are you a student and want to know more about student voter registration and education?
Are you a faculty or staff member and want to incorporate voter education in your work?
I.) Executive Summary for this Plan
Who are we? The current action plan represented in this site was developed over the fall 2021/spring 2022 semesters at Clemson University through our "Clemson Votes" coalition and builds upon previous planning efforts initiated in March 2018. We are students, staff, faculty, and community members on the leadership group, regularly connected to and working with local election boards and elected officials. We have the common goal of improving student demographic engagement. This plan goes through the primary and Nov 2022 elections, and we will continue to revisit, revise, adapt, and set new goals in spring 2023 and after.
What do we seek to do? Purpose. We seek to initiate and sustain broad-based, nonpartisan efforts aimed at improving the democratic engagement of our student population - graduate and undergraduate. We do this through regular action planning, tracking and accountability of our activities, and assessment of impacts through reporting.
Where do we seek to make an impact? Our main campus of Clemson University is in Clemson, South Carolina in the Upstate region. The majority of our 26,000 students live in the Clemson area and engage in in-person educational activities here. Through training, curriculum, co-curriculum, programming, and collaborative messaging, we aim to also reach the smaller numbers of students embedded in our innovation campuses throughout the state.
Goals. (See also section IV below for more information.)
Goal 1. Voter registration. In 2022, we intend to increase student voter registration rates to 89%+.
Goal 2. Voter turnout. In 2022, we intend to increase the voting rate of registered students to 60%+.
Goal 3. Voter education. In 2022, we intend to improve voter education at Clemson University through intentional strategies related to a.) curricular connections, b.) collaborative programming, and c.) enhanced communication strategies.
Goal 4. Long-term goal. Create University-level democratic engagement and civic learning student learning outcomes by 2024. Work toward implementation strategies for these outcomes such that all students are reached by 2027.
Why now? Clemson Votes started in 2018 to improve student democratic engagement in a more intentional and concerted way. Reports such as NSLVE show us that our efforts are making a difference, and we see an improved institutional commitment and landscape (discussed below) each year that we create a new action plan.
When will we make an impact? Duration. In 2019, we established short-term goals and long-term goals. Our Clemson Votes leadership coalition adjusted and updated our goals for 2022 to more accurately represent continued areas for growth and improvement in the current climate and landscape.
How? Our co-leaders from academic and student affairs, together with our Clemson Votes interns, facilitate continued coalition activities during the implementation phases of our campus action plan. Leaders from individual offices and units will accomplish their tasks according to our strategies outlined below and regularly tracked via our strategies Google heat sheet.
II.) Coalition and Leadership - How did we develop this plan?
Clemson Votes consists of students, faculty, staff, and community members comprising a cross-section of the Clemson University community and surrounding area. The co-convenors of Clemson Votes are academic Associate Dean Dr. Bridget Trogden and student affairs Director for Leadership Education & Development Kate Radford, together with our undergraduate Clemson Votes student interns - currently Bri Bowen and Madison Henry.
The coalition includes students representing the organizations of Clemson University Undergraduate and Graduate Student Government, Council on Diversity Affairs, Social Justice Council, Middle Eastern Student Association, Black Improvement Association, fraternity and sorority life, departmental clubs and organizations, campus interns, student affiliates of national parties, and the Pearce Center for Professional Communication.
Faculty representatives come from disciplines of political science, sociology, English, economics, science, business, women's leadership, mathematics, and library. The Director of the Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation provides coalition input, and faculty teaching in the Clemson Honors College and in the courses fulfilling our state-wide mandate for American founding documents are dedicated to including voter engagement in their courses.
Staff and faculty representatives from the Clemson Home unit, the Gantt Multicultural Center, the Center for Student Leadership & Engagement, College advising centers, and Student Athlete Development are part of the coalition. The faculty and staff on our coalition are advisors for student organizations. They teach classes. They are involved in community organizations and have a dedication to diversity and inclusion. They are leaders on and off campus.
Our surrounding community is very small, with a total population of less than 18,000 people. We feel especially fortunate to have the support of the Pickens County NAACP and the Oconee and Pickens County League of Women Voters with specific representation on our coalition. We communicate regularly with the elections board of Pickens County, South Carolina and members of the City of Clemson City Council on our shared aims and opportunities.
To create this plan, we had a series of three focused meetings over the spring of 2022 for vetting and sorting ideas into strategies, using the "Votes and Ballots" strategic planning guides. These strategies were then used to create our short-term and long-term goals.
III.) Commitment of the Institutuion
Mission. Clemson University is a public-land grant institution. Our founding and values are inherently related to the concepts of citizenship, with a mission where "Our primary purpose is educating undergraduate and graduate students to think deeply about and engage in the social, scientific, economic, and professional challenges of our times."
Vislble and Communicated Commitment. Since initiating our first action planning discussions in March 2018, we have moved to an era where our action plan and Clemson Votes initiatives are established. President James P. Clements has signed the Presidents Commitment. Provost and Chief Academic Officer Robert Jones helped to champion the creation of the DemocrACCy challenge and learning community with all of the ACC-AC (Atlantic Coast Conference-Academic Consortium) Provosts in the fall of 2019, a challenge that Clemson continues to co-lead. The Clemson Office of University Relations promotes our voter engagement activities to a local and national audience. We have funding for two Clemson Votes student interns through the joint effort of the Division of Undergraduate Studies and the UPIC on-campus intern program.
Outcomes, Curriculum, and Co-Curriculum. The Clemson Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation shares voting-related curricular information monthly to our nearly two thousand faculty. All new students enroll in an introductory course (CU 1000) with a voting module. The Center for Student Leadership and Engagement promotes co-curricular voter education opportunities to students in weekly newsletters. We have twice been approached by South Carolina Humanities who provided funding via the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for public webinars and events on electoral engagement, facilitated jointly between Clemson Votes and the Department of Political Science.
IV.) Landscape of the Institution
A strong student experience is a hallmark of a Clemson education. Our students are known for being involved, active, sociable, and well-rounded, but not always for high levels of engagement in political causes or social issues. Clemson University employs a multi-year, nationally normed survey schedule as one form of indirect assessment for the learning experiences of our student population and for assessing our campus climate. This institutional data is a valuable tool for measuring our students’ growth over time and comparing to peer institutions.
- National Survey on Student Engagement (NSSE): Deployed in spring 2021 and on a three-year cycle thereafter. The NSSE, administered to first-year and senior students, collects and compares information on how undergraduate students spend their time and what they gain from attending college.
- Multi-institutional Study of Leadership (MSL): Deployed in spring 2019, spring 2022, and on a three-year cycle thereafter. The MSL provides information on the development of socially responsible leadership across several research-based parameters.
- HERI surveys - Your First College Year (YFCY) and College Senior Survey (CSS): Deployed in spring 2023 and on a three-year cycle thereafter. These surveys are given to both first-year and senior students in order to assess academic and personal development.
Every year, we look to our data from student surveys to determine how student engagement and campus climate impact our voting culture. Many of the questions and disaggregated data within the surveys are appropriate indicators of Clemson University’s democratic engagement climate and point to areas where we need to improve. In the link above, we have specifically outlined the questions that we will be tracking as part of our democratic engagement landscape. Our data management plans prevent us from sharing all data publicly, but more specific data can be available to on-campus and off-campus stakeholders as needed. Email Dr. Bridget Trogden (trogden@clemson.edu) with a request.
V.) How will we use NSLVE data?
We are glad to have the opportunity to make our NSLVE data public. (Links are at the very top of this document.) Prior to the 2018 midterms, Clemson had never acquired the NSLVE data. In both our Clemson Votes coalition meetings and in talking with stakeholders, we see the value of this data to help us better understand our students, their habits, and where we should focus our efforts.
We found our data to be surprising in some ways and not in others. With regard to the 2018 midterms, a large number of our students are registered to vote (78%). However, of those who are registered, not quite half (49.6%) actually voted. In the 2020 election, we saw a larger registration rate (nearly 89%) and a yield rate of 81%. We believe - based on this data and evidence from the literature - that focusing our efforts on voter turnout and voter education will be most important for our students, along with providing students with accurate and reliable information on registering to vote either in our local precinct or at their permanent home addresses.
We explicitly utilized our NSLVE data in setting our goals and will explicitly use our NSLVE data in measuring our progress on those goals.
Because of how our National Student Clearinghouse data is reported, we could not extrapolate from the NSLVE reports much meaningful data on a number of student demographic variables, including race and gender. However, we found the voter breakdown by discipline/major to be quite enlightening. Clemson student data seems to follow national trends: students studying education, history, and public service professions vote at the highest rates. STEM students vote at the lowest rates, which is especially problematic at a school such as ours where these fields constitute a large percentage of our student population.
As one result of analyzing this data, our coalition has developed strategies specifically aimed toward improving the infusion democratic and voter engagement in our courses. We are in the midst of curricular revisions (general education revision, high-impact practices and engaged learning), and using our NSLVE data as both an indicator and a lever provides an opportunity for preparing better citizens.
VI.) Goals
Goal 1. Voter registration. In 2022, we intend to increase student voter registration rates to 89%+. This will be measured through the institution's participation in NSLVE. (2020 registration rate: 88.6%, 2018 registration rate: 78.5%, 2016 registration rate: 81.5%)
Goal 2. Voter turnout. In 2022, we intend to increase the voting rate of registered students to 60%+. This will be measured through the institution’s participation in NSLVE. (2020 yield rate: 80.7%, 2018 yield rate: 49.6%, 2016 yield rate: 71.6%)
Goal 3. Voter education. In 2022, we intend to improve voter education at Clemson University through intentional strategies related to a.) curricular connections, b.) collaborative programming, and c.) enhanced communication strategies. We will track and measure our improvements in voter education through our working sheet of strategies regularly updated by coalition members and by our performance on our end-of-year report with the DemocrACCy Challenge.
Goal 4. Long-term goal. Create University-level democratic engagement and civic learning student learning outcomes by 2024. Work toward implementation strategies for these outcomes such that all students are reached by 2027. We have set this as a long-term goal and will work toward implementation and assessment, using the AAC&U Civic Engagement VALUE Rubric to guide our work.
VII.) Strategies
Overview of Strategies for Goal 1
(Please see heat sheet link above for full list by goal and progress.)
Orientation activities: a.) Student Orientation Ambassadors are trained about the importance of registering to vote and how-to for sharing with new students. b.) Clemson Votes UPIC intern and/or leadership will have table and materials about voter registration at student orientation resource fairs (summer and January). c.) Incorporate voter registration information into University-level graduate student orientation.
Involvement pathways: a.) Voter registration and education tables at Tiger Prowl campus involvement fair held every semester. b.) Voter registration tables at all Center for Student Leadership and Engagement service events. c.) Develop and deliver student organization presentations and registration challenges with student voting ambassadors.
Strategies for Goal 2
(Please see heat sheet link above for full list by goal and progress.)
Reducing barriers: a.) Incorporate absentee ballot/making a voting plan module into study abroad pre-departure orientation. b.) Work with faculty & staff taking University-sponsored trips over fall break to prepare absentee ballot/making a voting plan information. (Background information: election day is a no-school holiday in South Carolina, as per state statute. However, Clemson University moves fall break back to accommodate election day every two years, so many social and academic trips are held over fall break.) c.) Share the institution list of notaries to students from states where their absentee ballot must be notarized.
GOTV education: a.) Relay state-specific information to students about registration and absentee ballot/making a voting plan during Welcome Week, with residence hall meetings. b.) Publicize the LibGuide from Clemson Libraries that has information about voter registration, elections and candidates, and media literacy.
Strategies for Goal 3
(Please see heat sheet link above for full list by goal and progress.)
Curricular strategies: a.) Update and deliver CU 1000 voting module for new students. b.) Promote the Voter and Democratic Engagement module from Canvas Commons for any faculty to incorporate into their courses. c.) Share weekly Clemson Votes features and curricular opportunities in the Teaching Newsletter. d.) Voter education assignments in REACH Act courses.
GOTV communication: a.) Develop clear and consistent messaging about voter education through our PR platforms. b.) Implement our social media plan, including student Instagram and TikTok take-overs.
Resources for student organizations: a.) Share the manual for student organizations of guidelines for bringing political candidates to campus. b.) Share the packet for student organizations to guide programming and democratic engagement activities. c.) Create debate watch guides for students and student organizations.
Cultural programming and diversity emphasis: a.) Voter registration & education during cultural months with Gantt Center, with emphasis on issues impacting specific populations (Black History Month, Women's History Month, Pride Week, Latinx Heritage Month, Asian American/Pacific Islanders Month. b.) Feature social and democratic engagement issues through Clemson Libraries displays. c.) Develop democratic engagement night series at Barnes Center. d.) Work with Student Athlete Advisory Council for student athlete specific-events and All Vote No Play initiatives.
Strategies for Goal 4
(Please see heat sheet link above for full list by goal and progress.)
Collaboration: Start working toward this goal through alignment of current initiatives and through the implementation phases of the new institutional strategic plan.
VIII.) Reporting
We have intentionally used this Adobe Spark Page format for creating our campus plan, not only for the visual appeal, but also because it allows for:
- The use of URLs for public posting of our NSLVE and institutional data related to democratic engagement.
- The inclusion of our strategy tracking sheets and key contacts.
- Continuous updating as we determine what works for us and what tweaks need to be made to our action plan over time.
- Tracking of unique views. (For example, between March 2019 and November 2022, this page has been viewed by over 2,700 unique IP addresses.)
Furthermore, we have:
- Established Clemson Votes as a group within our student organizations database (Tiger Quest) so that the coalition is searchable and trackable.
- Created a blog for faculty on sharing resources.
We have co-created a reporting mechanism within the DemocrACCy Challenge for collecting and reporting our annual activities. The form not only helps Clemson Votes to identify strengths and areas for improvement, but it is also used by all ACC institutions for reporting and elevating our collective work.
IX.) Evaluation
Information is collected and analyzed as we receive NSLVE data (Goal 1 and Goal 2), carry out voter education strategies (Goal 3), and create our long-term outcomes (Goal 4). The three institution-wide surveys discussed in Section IV also guide our work and provide data on areas where we will establish action.
We believe that our short-term goals all fulfill the SMARTIE (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timebound, inclusive, and equitable) recommendations.
In addition to constantly updating and tracking our progress on our working strategies sheet, we will evaluate our progress on goals on an annual basis. We have regular check-ins three times each semester (beginning, middle, end) with our Clemson Votes leadership coalition to make sure we are on track with our strategies that contribute to the success of our goals. The aforementioned DemocrACCy Challenge reporting survey also lets us better evaluate the scope and impact of our activities.
Our long-term goal is more comprehensive. As we work on institutionalizing goals 1-3, we will be laying the groundwork for goal 4. As with many institutions, Clemson University is undergoing a new strategic plan and budget model as we come out of pandemic and re-commit to our institutional mission. Rather than starting an entirely new area for democratic engagement and civic learning student learning outcomes, we will be working toward aligning this goal with other strategic initiatives.
Thanks for reading. Want to talk more? Contact Clemson Votes via Bridget Trogden (Trogden@Clemson.edu) or Kate Radford (Radford@Clemson.edu).