SUNY Oswego wins award for civic engagement initiative

SUNY Oswego recently earned the 2026 Highly Established Action Plan Seal from ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for exemplary commitment to promoting nonpartisan civic learning and student voter participation.

This nonpartisan democratic engagement action plan, written by Karen Oakes, Vote Oswego coordinator and instructor in SUNY Oswego's History Department, received the honor for receiving at least 28 of 32 possible points based on the Strengthening American Democracy Action Planning Guide Rubric by expert reviewers from across the nation.

“While SUNY Oswego is one of 233 campuses to earn this honor, these efforts reflect the campus' continued efforts in infusing civic learning in transforming lives and igniting possibilities,” said Andrea Vickery, a communication studies faculty member and part of the university’s Civic Engagement Coalition. “SUNY Oswego's Vote Oswego has been taking action to increase nonpartisan student civic learning, political engagement and voter participation since 2016.”

Vote Oswego was restructured into a student employment initiative under the Empire State Service Corps, a SUNY-funded initiative administered by the Office of Experiential Learning. This effort employed five students for up to 10 hours per week.

The action plan’s strategy and goals included supporting a SUNY requirement (launching in fall 2026) for all students to demonstrate competency in civic discourse, knowledge and skills; stabilizing operations working with volunteer members of the Civic Engagement Coalition; and shifting civic engagement efforts student clubs, athletics teams, residence halls and other stakeholders.

In addition, the plan called for earlier outreach in lower-division General Education courses, as more than 75 percent of academic departments currently embed civic discourse mainly in upper-division courses. This also instills civic engagement earlier in a student’s college experience.

Goals for the upcoming academic year include expanding classroom visits and social media reach and host special events informing students of registration procedures and their voting rights in time for the 2026 midterm elections.

For more information about these action plans and the ALL IN Democracy Challenge, visit allin.vote/HEAP. The campus is invited to stay tuned for campus programming from Vote Oswego this fall, including Constitution Day on Sept, 17.

– Submitted by the Civic Engagement Coalition