Ole Miss Joins Elite List of Voter Friendly Campuses
Designation recognizes efforts to promote student voter engagement and civic participation
OXFORD, Miss. – University of Mississippi student ambassadors, staff, faculty and community members overcame low turnout and tight deadlines to grow civic engagement across campus last year. Their efforts were recognized with the university being designated as a Voter Friendly Campus for the 2025-26 cycle.
The honor, awarded jointly by the Campus Vote Project, a nonpartisan venture of the Fair Elections Center, and NASPA‑Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, recognizes the dedication of the university's voting coalition.
The university's Center for Community Engagement makes voter registration materials available for students and provides guidance on getting registered to vote. Submitted photo
The award was a true team accomplishment, said Cade Smith, assistant vice chancellor for access and community engagement.
"Marshall Pentes and our dedicated voting ambassadors led the charge on the student side, while Dr. William Teer, who was nationally recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, hired, inspired and guided those ambassadors every step of the way," Smith said.
The student volunteers were critical to the effort's success, said Teer, program director for student leadership and financial well-being for the Center for Community Engagement.
"Together they tackled obstacles such as low baseline turnout, tight outreach timelines and limited resources to foster a campus culture of civic engagement," he said.
Ole Miss is one of three Mississippi institutions to earn the designation for 2025-26, joining 271 other campuses in 39 states and the District of Columbia. This is the fourth time the university has received the distinction since first being recognized as a Voter Friendly Campus during the 2019-20 cycle.
"While our campuswide election turnout rates were slightly lower than the national average of our peer institutions, we have made great strides in increasing these rates from the past election cycles," Smith said.
Voting can be overwhelming for many college students, but the university has resources to guide students through each step of the process or registering and voting, said Marshall Pentes, a senior studying honors economics and mathematics from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Pentes led the voting ambassadors in creating and implementing a plan to educate fellow students on voting.
"Last year was our biggest one yet in terms of programming and our ability to reach all corners of campus," he said. "We registered over 350 students to vote between the beginning of the semester and the Oct. 7 registration deadline. Our Voter Readiness Form helped over 1,700 students plan to vote.
"Our interactive lesson about voter registration and voting was taught to over 3,000 freshmen and transfer students in EDHE 105 and 305 classes."
The Center for Community Engagement is already planning its voter education and registration efforts for the fall semester. Students who want to help with voter education and registration efforts this fall should email umvotes@olemiss.edu or stop by the center on the third floor of Lamar Hall, across from the Writing Center.
Top: Voting engagement ambassadors Aminata 'Ami' Ba (right) and Marshall Pentes (second from right) assist students in registering to vote in the Circle during the 2024 National Voter Registration Day. Submitted photo
By
Jordan Karnbach
Campus
Office, Department or Center
Published
April 27, 2025