The University of Pennsylvania’s record voting turnout—in a pandemic, no less—coincides with a campus voting challenge award.
Students sign up on National Voter Registration Day in September 2021.
The numbers are in. University of Pennsylvania students voted in unprecedented numbers during the 2020 presidential election, achieving record-high voter turnout during a semester taught fully online in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were reported in the 2020 Campus National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) Report issued by the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at Tufts University.
This data might not come as a surprise for members of Penn Leads the Vote (PLTV), who co-wrote an action plan outlining steps to foster student civic engagement in 2020 and 2021. The plan recently won the ALL IN Democracy Challenge 2021 Best Action Plan Award for the Pennsylvania Campus Voting Challenge for a four-year institution.
PLTV, which operates from the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and works in partnership with the Office of Government and Community Affairs, is a non-partisan voter-engagement program. It’s currently co-directed by Harrison Feinman of Los Angeles and Eva Gonzalez of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, both seniors majoring in political science.
The award was a great testament to both Penn Leads the Vote and Penn students, says Feinman. “The sum really is greater than its parts, and we were all able to pull together and work as an entire campus to improve civic engagement.”
Here are the results:
77%
The number of eligible Penn students who voted in the 2020 presidential general election, a 9.2% increase from the 2016 election, and a 23.1% increase from the 2018 midterm election
67%
The turnout rate for the general population
66%
The national college student voter turnout rate
89%
The rate of registered Penn students who voted on Election Day 2020, compared to 73% in 2016 and 64% in 2018
100%
Penn’s eligible voter registration goal for 2028, included in the Action Plan
Understanding order to disorder at the atomic scale opens possibilities for next-generation electronic devices
A Penn team has developed insight into the chemical and geometric mechanisms underlying the synthesis of new 2D materials, paving the way for next-gen devices, biomedical applications, and cleaner, quicker energy conversion and storage.
Exposure to air pollution worsens Alzheimer’s disease
New research from Penn Medicine finds living in areas with high concentration of air pollution is associated with increased buildup of amyloid and tau proteins in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, accelerating cognitive decline.
Penn buildings achieve LEED certifications, showcasing commitment to sustainability
Three recent building projects at the University of Pennsylvania have earned LEED Platinum, Gold, and Silver certifications, underscoring Penn’s ongoing commitment to sustainable design and construction.
What stiffening lung tissue reveals about the earliest stages of fibrosis
A Penn Engineering team has targeted the lung’s extracellular matrix to better understand early fibrosis by triggering the formation of special chemical bonds that increase tissue stiffness in specific locations, mimicking the first physical changes that may lead to lung fibrosis.
