Tri-C Honored by National Coalition for Student Voter Engagement

College receives 2022 SLSV Award for ‘Making Democracy Fun and Celebratory’

Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) was one of 11 organizations nationally honored for its efforts to uplift student voting in 2022. The Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition recognized the College and others for their work to make voting easier, more accessible and equitable for higher education students. 
 
SLSV is a nonpartisan network of more than 400 national, state and local organizations dedicated to growing the student vote. SLSV announced the awards at its Post-Election Gathering Dec. 8. 
 
Tri-C was recognized for exemplifying the SLSV Guiding Principle of “Making Democracy Fun and Celebratory” with its national dance challenge video, “Rock The Polls.”  
 
The new, nonpartisan voting anthem was written by gospel artist Corey Bapes with input from Tri-C students and staff serving on the College’s Government Relations Democracy Fellows 2022 team. “Rock The Polls” became the overarching theme of Tri-C’s 2022 Promote the Vote efforts, including student dance challenges on campuses across the nation.

“'Rock The Polls' became an amazing, shining star for all of our student, faculty and staff civic engagement efforts,” said Katie Montgomery, director of government relations at Tri-C. “More than 100 students, staff and faculty, in addition to Corey Bapes, joined us in the Collegewide collaboration, including a student-produced music video that has garnered over 10,000 views to date.” 
  
College students and other young voters showed up in record numbers during the 2022 elections — the second highest youth voter turnout rates in 30 years. More than a quarter of young people cast a ballot, according to Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). 
 
“The 2022 SLSV Award recipients exemplify the guiding principles that have fueled the growth and success of the nonpartisan student vote movement,” said SLSV Coalition Co-Founder and Executive Director Clarissa Unger. “Each of them performed amazing work that made a tangible difference in the lives and experiences of voters in 2022. We’re proud to count them as partners, along with hundreds more organizations, doing the work every day to help college students make their voices heard in our democracy.” 

December 09, 2022

MEDIA CONTACT: Anthony Moujaes, 216-987-3068 or anthony.moujaes@tri-c.edu