Promoting civic engagement on college campuses is a priority for higher education institutions, particularly before an election, as is helping students to get involved in political discourse and use their voices.
But in the wake of this election, most students say they don’t feel like their vote matters.
A November Student Voice survey by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse found 57 percent of college students feel like their voice/vote makes a difference not much or not at all following the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. Only 14 percent of respondents said they strongly agree that their vote makes a difference, and the remaining 29 percent believe their vote matters somewhat.
Voter apathy is not unique to college students. Approximately one in three Americans said they felt exhausted with politics after the election. But campus leaders are hoping to keep young voters engaged in the democratic process, not seeing voting as the end goal but one piece of the puzzle.
“[Students] are the future of this democracy of this country; they’re going to be the ones making the decisions of the future, and we want them to be engaged beyond the presidential election years,” says Julie Schumacher Cohen, assistant vice president of community engagement and government affairs at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.
Methodology
Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab polled 1,031 students at 190 two- and four-year institutions from Nov. 13 to 17. The margin of error is 3 percent.
The survey is part of Inside Higher Ed’s ongoing Student Voice project. Check out our other surveys on the election, as well as academic life, the college experience, health and wellness, and life after college.
Survey says: Demographic factors, including how students voted in the presidential election and their political party affiliation, showed clear trends among Republicans and Trump voters feeling more represented in the democratic process; two-thirds of Trump voters or registered Republicans believe their vote matters at least somewhat, compared to 37 percent of Democrats and 36 percent of Harris voters.
This trend wasn’t surprising to Cohen. “Whenever your candidate wins, you are going to feel better about the outcome or that democracy does work better than if you had a disappointing outcome,” Cohen says.
Both the Harris and Trump campaigns saw a lower turnout among student voters in 2024 compared to 2020, which had historically high participation among young people, according to an analysis of exit poll data by Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
Among all Student Voice respondents who voted, 47 percent say they feel their voice/vote makes a difference at least “somewhat.”
Adult learners (ages 25 and up) were more likely to feel like their vote didn’t matter, with 27 percent reporting they felt their voice mattered not at all, compared with 21 percent of traditional-aged learners.
Democratic ideals: Before the election, over one-quarter (26 percent) of Student Voice respondents said the future of democracy was a top issue in whom they chose to vote for.
University of Scranton leaders heard students express concerns about the state of democracy in terms of a free and fair election and questioning their confidence in the election process, Cohen says.
Following the election, 44 percent of Student Voice respondents said they are very concerned about the future of democracy in this country, with a total of 69 percent of students who are at least somewhat concerned. This number grows to 48 percent among students who voted feeling very worried, for a total of 70 percent of student voters worried about America’s future as a democracy.
Election results, similarly, played an impact in students’ feelings, with 69 percent of Harris voters “very” worried about the future of democracy compared to 44 percent of Trump voters who are “not at all” concerned about the future.
Among students who didn’t vote, 17 percent said they are “very” concerned with the future of democracy and another 17 percent said they were “not at all” concerned.
On campus: Just because the election is over doesn’t mean student organizers and campus leaders are stopping civic engagement work; it’s the opposite, in fact.
Following the election, the University of Mary Washington in Virginia held additional programming to keep students engaged on campus and help them address any feelings they may be experiencing, Melissa Jones, dean of students and associate vice president of student affairs, shared in a Nov. 19 webinar hosted by the Constructive Dialogue Institute.
The Students Learn Students Vote coalition saw interest in their work spike after election; Clarissa Unger told Inside Higher Ed the group saw dozens of new requests to attend their late November conference in the two weeks after the election. SLSV intentionally hosts its National Student Vote Summit (NSVS) shortly after Election Day to ensure organizers’ momentum doesn’t slow down, Unger shared.
The University of Scranton’s Royals Vote coalition will meet in the coming weeks to discuss how to keep students engaged, looking at civic dialogue work, encouraging advocacy and highlighting peaceful protest.
Bridgewater College is rebranding its student voter initiative from BC Votes to BC Engage, also helping students see themselves as participants in the democratic process throughout the year, not just during election season, Bobbi Gentry, associate professor of political science, shared at NSVS.
During NSVS, students brainstormed ways to continue making civic engagement a priority among their peers, including making politics more casual and ensuring students feel proud and empowered as they participate in democratic processes.
Student organizers have fought voter apathy by encouraging participation in local elections and connecting issues their peers care about to ballot positions, helping them see where they can make a difference in voting.
“We need to keep working; we definitely can’t put this to the side and come back in four years,” Cohen says.
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