At Rutgers–New Brunswick, civic engagement thrives in daily campus life: students register peers at transit hubs and student centers, interns visit classrooms with deadline reminders, and voting updates circulate across social media feeds.
The university’s commitment to fostering civic learning and voter participation recently earned it a "Highly Established Action Plan Seal" from ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. This national initiative recognizes higher education institutions with strong, nonpartisan strategies for preparing students to take part in democracy.
Rutgers–New Brunswick is one of 129 colleges and universities nationwide to receive the seal for the 2026 election cycle, based on the strength of its planning and outreach.
“The ALL IN recognition reflects the structured, campuswide approach Rutgers has built around civic engagement,” said Jessica Ronan-Frisch, associate director of the Center for Youth Political Participation, a nonpartisan unit within the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers. “Especially since 2024, we’ve made a deliberate effort to institutionalize this work and offer many different ways for students to become involved.”
The ALL IN initiative provides higher education institutions with the structure, support, and accountability needed to build a culture of active citizenship. It determines awards using the Strengthening American Democracy Rubric, which evaluates how effectively colleges and universities build coalitions, set voting goals, and plan nonpartisan outreach.
With 31.5 out of 36 points, Rutgers–New Brunswick met the threshold for the Highly Established Action Plan Seal. ALL IN currently supports more than 1,000 participating colleges and universities nationwide.
Ronan-Frisch was part of the team that developed the university’s 2026 Campus Civic Action Plan, the blueprint that earned the seal. The plan coordinates outreach across five campuses— Busch, College Avenue, Douglass, George H. Cook, and Livingston—bridging Eagleton’s tradition of political research, education and public service with direct support for student voters.
Eagleton brings that mission to student voters through RU Voting, a nonpartisan program created by a 2008 University Senate resolution and now run by the center.
RU Voting relies on classroom visits, campus tabling, and student leadership. Paid RU Voting interns and trained volunteer ambassadors assist peers with registration, answer voting questions, and encourage turnout during election season.
The program’s digital reach has surged alongside its physical presence. In 2025, a simple “Are you registered to vote?” graphic, created by a student in a design class at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, garnered 80,000 views.
This multi-channel approach proved effective during the 2025 governor’s race. From August through November, the RU Voting team interacted with roughly 3,000 students, 1,200 of whom visited their tables on Election Day alone.
Wren Lieberman, a Rutgers senior majoring in public policy, helped make those conversations happen as one of five paid RU Voting interns during the 2025 governor’s race.
As Election Day approached, Lieberman and their peers fielded questions about mail-in ballots, registration updates, and whether students should vote at Rutgers or in their home states. Many students cared deeply about the issues, Lieberman said, but needed help translating that interest into a voting plan.
“Affordability was a big thing for them, which makes sense at a state university,” Lieberman said. “Education also mattered, and social issues came up more than I expected. A lot of students were worried about immigration, abortion, and the social platforms that both candidates ran on.”
Looking ahead, center administrators plan to sustain this momentum by deepening partnerships with faculty, staff, administrators, student organizations, campus offices, and New Brunswick officials. Future efforts include a yearly online candidate guide and expanded use of data to analyze student voting patterns and strengthen outreach between elections.
The national recognition comes at a special moment for Eagleton, which is marking its 70th anniversary and celebrating a legacy of civic education, research and public service. Ronan-Frisch said she sees those values in the students who spend long days at tables, offering guidance and making voting feel less remote.
“Most students come to us with thoughtful questions, and on Election Day, many students, faculty, and staff stop to thank us for being there,” Ronan-Frisch said. “Every so often, someone is looking for a political argument, and that can be discouraging for my students. But when they get so many thank yous, it makes all the difference. “
