Prioritizing Civic Mobility

by Sarah Achenbach ’88

An estimated 42 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds voted in the 2024 presidential election, many for the first time, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts. Reports won’t be official until 2026, but national youth voter turnout is expected to be substantially lower than 2020’s estimate of 50 percent youth voter turnout.

That drop in civic engagement was definitely not reflected at Hollins University. Last fall’s numbers are estimated to be near or above the 90.2 percent of Hollins students who voted in the 2020 presidential election. Not surprisingly, more colleges and universities than ever before stepped up efforts to ensure student voices were heard at the ballot box in what was the most polarized, unprecedented presidential election in U.S. history. Hollins ensured its young voters and campus community embraced civic responsibilities through its inaugural semester with the national ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.

This comprehensive, nonpartisan program, developed by the nonprofit Civic Nation, encourages voter registration and improves civic learning and political engagement among 18- to 24-year-olds. More than 1,075 campuses nationwide participated in ALL IN last fall. At the center of Hollins’ ALL IN participation was the nonpartisancampus voter coalition of faculty, staff, and 12 students leading pre-, during-, and post-election activities.

This semester, the coalition is launching an annual, robust civic education and engagement program, an initiative that is off to an auspicious start: post-election, Hollins was selected among 471 colleges and universities as a 2024 ALL IN Most Engaged Campus for College Student Voting for outstanding efforts to increase nonpartisan student voter participation.

“I am deeply proud of our students’ and community’s commitment to the core of our democratic process—voting,” said Hollins University President Mary Dana Hinton. “Hollins empowers women to use their voice, especially at the voting booth. Our students worked very hard to turn out the vote on campus this fall, while displaying respect and civility for all. Being recognized by ALL IN as a national leader in nonpartisan student civic engagement and student voter turnout underscores Hollins’ mission and vision as being more resonant and relevant than ever.”

It’s also strategic. In 2023, the Hollins Board of Trustees unanimously approved Transforming Learning, Transforming Lives: The Levavi Oculos Strategic Plan, the university’s seven-year strategic plan. Focused on three gears—academic excellence, wellness, and access—the plan sets its ambitious, overarching intention to be “the nation’s leading liberal arts college for women and an undisputed leader in social, economic, and civic mobility.”

The latter term—civic mobility—may be new for many. It was for Tiffany Hinton, Ph.D., associate vice president for belonging and chief Title IX Officer, who co-leads Hollins’ ongoing ALL IN efforts with Megan Canfield, current assistant director of special programs who served as assistant dean of students last fall. “I view civic mobility as extension of civic engagement and our ability to navigate civic life, including voting, attending community meetings, providing feedback on community- related decisions, volunteering, and advocating for social issues that impact others around us,” says Hinton, who had worked with the ALL IN program before coming to Hollins in early 2024.

Students who grasp civic mobility, she says, are better equipped to foster a sense of community, influence decision-making, and, essentially, own their social responsibility to ultimately impart positive change in their communities. That’s the long game of the coalition’s annual civic education and engagement program. “Ultimately, we want to ensure that our students are aware of all the issues that will affect them for generations to come,” explains Gary Brown, Ph.D., vice president for Student Success, Well-being, and Belonging. “Civic mobility means that we’re equipping them to pass the torch at some point. There is generational progress that occurs with democracy. We want Hollins students to benefit from a diversity of perspectives to help shape what we want our world to be.”

Initially, the coalition focused its nonpartisan approach on voter registration and did register 35 voters over the course of fall 2024 through voter education. Once ALL IN shared Hollins’ impressive student voting registration rates, the coalition redirected its efforts “to educate students on how they can vote should they choose to vote in-person in Roanoke, vote early, or to request a mail-in ballot,” Canfield explains of student voting preferences, which have shifted from in-person to early and mail-in voting.

“It was nice knowing that more people would be voting because of our efforts.”

The nonpartisan coalition—Hollins did not solicit information regarding political affiliation from any adult or student coalition member—developed an exhaustive schedule of voter education events to articulate the nuances of how to vote by mail or online in students’ home state or in person in Virginia, should they choose.

Coalition student ambassador Logan Lynxwiler ’27, history major, was excited to vote in her first presidential election. “I’ve always been very passionate that every vote matters, and it’s important to me that everybody has the access to be able to vote. Being part of the coalition was a good way for me to get involved on campus, get involved in my community, and make sure that I was able to help my community members to get their voices heard.”

Disseminating correct voting information in the age of information overload is a challenge. “Social media is a great way to get [voter] information out, but bad information also gets out,” Lynxwiler explains. “Information is the most powerful thing, so we make sure that if somebody wants voter information, they don’t have to go hunting for it.”

That’s precisely what inspired Victoria Slick ’27 to join the coalition after completing her mail-in ballot. “I was anxious about the presidential election and found that the majority of my friends didn’t have anything figured out for how or when they were going to vote,” Slick, an English and creative writing major, explains. “The lack of information circulating amongst students contributed to a lot of the election anxiety. Because I understood [the mail-in process], I wanted to prevent students from not voting simply because they didn’t understand how the process worked or that it intimidated them.”

The key mission of the voter coalition, she adds, is to inform students, reminding them of their rights, and walk them through the process in a way that engages and encourages them so that “the next time they [can] do it themselves easily without hesitation, helplessness, or anxiety—and convince them to participate, regardless of which team they play for.”

The coalition’s wrap-around, nonpartisan approach included table sitting in Moody Dining Hall and on Front Quad with voter registration information, informational flyers, debate watch parties, free rides to the polls on election day, and more. Modeling its mission of empowering other voices, the coalition worked with campus and outside groups to engage and inform voters. The Wyndham Robertson Library team curated a civic and political guide that included literature inclusive of differing viewpoints. Gender Women Studies, the Batten Leadership Institute, and other campus groups collaborated on a film screening of Ratified, a documentary on the history of the Equal Rights Amendment. The League of Women Voters of the Roanoke Valley hosted and facilitated an “Ice cream & Issues” event, and Democracy for Virginia, Points for Diversity, and Rock the Vote were involved in programming efforts.

Student ambassador Jen Alvarez ’27 was invited to join the coalition mid- semester through her role as the Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) Support and Action Chair in the Hollins Student Government Association. “I know a lot of people think that their vote doesn’t really matter, and I wanted to change that thought process,” she explains. “It was nice knowing that more people would be voting because of our efforts. I’m from Tennessee, so it was easier for me to explain the process of requesting an absentee ballot.”

On election day, the coalition hosted an election results watch party and led several post-election programs, including a “Five Days of Kindness” focus and wellness programs (mindfulness sessions, yoga, walking program). Each program was designed to help students process high emotions in an environment of differing viewpoints.

Lynxwiler recalls urging her fellow coalition members to plan post-election events in October. “I brought up in a meeting that we needed to announce our plans before the election results came out, because if we added things after the results, people may take it as a political stance by the university,” she says. “We kept our own personal beliefs out of what we were doing to make sure that it was as effective and equitable as possible, even if we as individuals disagreed with somebody’s political views.”

“We know that election season can bring a fair bit of stress and anxiety around what is going to happen,” Brown adds. “Our events provided space and time to reflect upon the outcomes of the elections for those on the winning side of the election and those who weren’t.”

Hollins has a long history of civic engagement and activism. LEFT: Jennifer Barton Boysko ‘89 (third from left) stands on the steps of the Supreme Court during her student days. RIGHT: First-year students Natalia Chapel, Kourtnee Durham, and Katrina Finch with Delegate Betsy Carr ‘68 (69th District), at the Virginia General Assembly in early 2025 to ask for VTAG support.

This tenet and holding people accountable to it remain at the center of the coalition’s ongoing efforts. “We are a very kind group,” Lynxwiler reflects. “The issues in this election were emotionally charged ones. There were things that personally are very hard for me to imagine supporting, but we made sure that the people who supported them felt safe in the university afterwards and were able to share their experiences because we are a community.”

Adds Brown, “Everyone was watching this election, and certainly there were hopes for one side or the other. That spurred some of the interest, but it become very apparent that regardless of the outcome of the election, some of our students really need that continued engagement and conversation.”

Ongoing conversations, led by the ALL IN coalition, are as intentional now as they were during election season. On Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Hollins hosted an inauguration watch party and MLK Day events. In February, several students traveled to Richmond to meet with lawmakers to advocate for the ongoing support of the Commonwealth’s Tuition Assistance Grant Program (VTAG) for Virginia residents who attend accredited private, nonprofit colleges and universities.

This spring, Braver Angels, a national, cross-partisan movement to bridge the partisan divide in the U.S., is leading a civil dialogue workshop the same month Hollins hosts the Council for Independent Colleges in Virginia (CICV) and Interfaith America to discuss campus pluralism. The coalition is also screening the documentary Undivide Us about civil conversations.

Over this backdrop, the coalition’s student ambassadors have launched an information campaign about the importance of voting in all elections. They have researched state voter information for the top five enrolled states at Hollins to share voter information for those states in preparation for the next state election cycle.

A rich and reflective civics “training ground” for every student to understand how to engage respectfully and to speak across differences is at the core of a liberal arts education and Hollins’ mission. “Just as I believe education is the key to social and economic mobility, I believe education is the first step toward meaningful civic engagement and action,” says President Hinton. “We must take responsibility to be accurately informed so that we respond rather than merely react.”

The coalition student ambassadors and students across campus are taking these lessons to heart. “So much has become political since we were born in ways that things haven’t been political in the past,” reflects Lynxwiler. She believes that most people on campus struggled with the human aspect of politics and the current, national atmosphere of us vs. them. It’s a political divide she and her colleagues are committed to bridging. “I really appreciate that Hollins students care and are doing these things to help their community and the nation,” she adds. “Knowing that we registered people to vote and helped with mail-in ballots definitely brought some joy and fulfillment to all of the complex emotions that came along with the election.”

Alvarez’s ramped-up civic engagement deepened her intellectual and academic passions. After the election, she declared a double major in Gender and Women’s Studies and International Studies with a minor in Social Justice. “As a historically woman’s college, Hollins students need to understand the importance and be able to learn more about civic engagement,” she says. “Many of the things happening affect us now and in the future. There are a lot of women beyond Hollins who can’t access many of the resources about engagement as we have here. We need to pass this knowledge to people outside of Hollins. The only way we are going to make change is if we spread information.”