According to a study by the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education at Tufts University NECC students are getting out to vote in numbers higher than their peers at community colleges and public and private colleges and universities.
Better than half of Northern Essex students, 51.9 percent to be exact, voted in the 2016 election. This was up 4.5 percent from 2012, when 47.4 percent voted, and was higher than the national average of 50.4 percent.
The Institute first conducted the survey, called the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, in 2012. It includes 30 million student records from more than 1,000 campuses in 50 states.
Northern Essex has highlighted civic engagement and hired Janel D’Agata-Lynch as coordinator of civic engagement and service learning in November 2015.
With D’Agata-Lynch’s leadership, the college hosted an Election Teach-In, a series of events designed to educate the college community about the presidential election and other important election issues, prior to the 2016 election. The teach-In included presentations on the importance of voting by elected officials; a presidential debate; programs on topics such as voter security; and more.
“We’re proud that so many NECC students chose to exercise their democratic right to vote in 2016. However, we want these numbers to continue to climb. We know presidential elections tend to bring out a lot voters, but we strongly urge everyone to get out the vote this November for local and state elections,” said D’Agata-Lynch.
