In support of our commitment to the Big Ten Voter Challenge, the Barger Leadership Institute, along with the Michigan Community Scholars Program, hosted a Lunch & Learn event on September 26, 2018, featuring Dr. Nancy Thomas, the Director of the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education at Tufts University. At the event, Dr. Thomas gave an insightful talk on college students being underrepresented when it comes to voting.

BLI Fellow Amanda Gomez notes, “At the Lunch and Learn, we were able to look into statistics of our university's voting turnout compared to others, and the results were shocking. Nancy also gave us the advice to surround ourselves with people that have different political ideology in order to encourage more young students to vote.”

Dr. Thomas directs research on higher education’s role in American democracy, including the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE). Prior to joining Tisch College in 2012, Nancy directed the Democracy Imperative, a national network of academics and practitioners working to advance deliberative democracy in higher education. She currently serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Public Deliberation and senior associate with Everyday Democracy. Her professional interests connect political learning and democratic engagement; equity, diversity, and inclusion; academic freedom and free speech, and; legal issues in higher education.

With the midterm elections only a week away, we continue to do our part to make sure that our members are civically engaged and registered to vote.

Election Day is on November 6, 2018. How are you getting to the polls?

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