Support Student Voting & Civic Education

Support Student Voting & Civic Education

Faculty and staff can play an important role by helping students access voter education resources. The following page contains links to relevant Penn State policies, guidance for faculty and staff, and approved resources that you can share with students.

Relevant Penn State Policies

Before talking with students about voting, faculty and staff should review the following Penn State policies to ensure they understand their roles and responsibilities.

Essential Guidelines

• Information about registering to vote, voting, ballot measures, and candidates for elective office must be accurate and presented in a non-partisan way. We strongly urge you to use Penn State Votes-approved resources.
• Federal and Pennsylvania law prohibit offering or providing money, gifts, rewards, or other things of value in exchange for voting, registering to vote, or voting for or against a particular candidate or ballot measure. Faculty and staff should not offer extra credit, assignment points, prizes, gift cards, food, or other incentives in exchange for registering to vote, voting, proving that a student voted, abstaining from voting, or supporting a particular candidate, party, or ballot measure.
• Class time should not be used for completing voter registration forms and faculty/staff should not collect voter registration forms.

You may be approached by outside groups or student groups asking to share voting information in your classroom or other spaces. While ultimately decisions about classroom guests remain within an individual instructor’s discretion, we caution you against inviting unvetted third-party groups into your classroom, as the quality of the training these individuals may have received, the quality and accuracy of the materials they share, and their ability to remain non-partisan can vary significantly. 

Please also note that Penn State Policy AD92 prohibits the use of classroom time or University resources to promote or oppose a political candidate, party, or campaign. Elected officials can be valuable classroom guests but require advance planning and consultation. This policy also requires advance notice to designated University offices before any political candidate visits campus, with additional notice to the Chancellor or Chief Executive for Commonwealth campus visits.

What You Can Do

While incentivizing registration and voting is strictly prohibited, Penn State’s core mission is education. Penn State faculty and staff may hand out non-partisan educational materials related to voting and registration and may incentivize learning about voting, elections, and contemporary topics. 

• Pursuant to Penn State Policy AD92, faculty may encourage civic engagement through non-partisan educational efforts, e.g., reminders about registration or voting deadlines, and academically relevant assignments, provided that any academic credit offered is based on clearly defined educational objectives—not on whether a student registers, votes, or votes in a particular way.
• Beyond sharing basic registration and voting information, broader civic education should be tied to course learning objectives and faculty expertise.

Consider timing your activities as follows:

Penn State Votes Approved Resources

Faculty and staff are encouraged to share these Penn State Votes approved resources with students to ensure they have accurate, non-partisan information about how to register and vote, should they be eligible and choose to do so. National Voter Registration Day (September 15) is a timely opportunity to share these materials in class, at co-curricular events, in newsletters, on social media, and in high traffic areas. 

• If students have questions about voting and voter registration processes, please encourage them to visit psuvotes.psu.edu, email psvotes@psu.edu, or visit 103 HUB-Robeson Center.

Educational Resources

The Civic Education Collaborative brings together experts from across Penn State to support civic education. Our partners include: Penn State Votes, the Office for General Education, the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, Penn State University Libraries, the School of Public Policy, the McCourtney Institute for Democracy, World in Conversation, and Penn State’s News Literacy Initiative. These resources are designed by our partners to help faculty support civic education in the classroom.

Beyond the Scroll: The Importance of Newspaper Reading for Civic Education

Boost student knowledge and reduce social media dependence by building newspaper readership into your classes. Penn State University Libraries and the Penn State News Literacy Initiative have partnered to create a guide to help faculty explore ways to incorporate newspaper reading into their curriculum. And anyone can use the slide in class or in co-curricular spaces to be sure students know they get free access to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal through Penn State’s Student News Readership Program.

Midterm Elections 101 – a Canvas Learning Module

The US government and elections are complex. Students (whether voters or not) have a lot to learn about the levels of government, what they do, and how the system works. The Office for General Education has created a civic learning module to help students learn key facts and where to find non-partisan resources about midterm elections. The Faculty Guide shares ways to incorporate the learning module into classrooms, covers logistics for using the module, and has instructions for faculty to post in Canvas to help students access the module. The Midterm Elections 101 Slide can be posted in Canvas or used as a handout at educational events.

News Literacy: Resources to Teach about Mis- and Disinformation

Students and the public encounter a lot of misinformation and disinformation. Penn State faculty can help students develop the skills to identify and avoid false information, and to identify and use high-quality information. Explore resources compiled by the Penn State University Libraries and the News Literacy Initiative to help you teach students about mis- and disinformation. 

Summer 2026 Learning Opportunities

Supporting Student Voting & Civic Education

The Civic Education Collaborative and Penn State Votes are hosting two Zoom information sessions for faculty and staff. We will share information about various student voting and civic education efforts planned for fall, discuss ways you can support student voting and civic engagement in classrooms and academic units, introduce resources that can help, and answer your questions. Advanced registration is required.

• Tuesday, August 11
  1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, September 2
  4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Designing Teaching to Navigate Challenging Topics

The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence will be holding a workshop for faculty this summer. In this interactive session, you we will explore how to design effective teaching proactively for challenging topics. We’ll focus on the level of structure that is needed to decrease the likelihood of hot moments in our learning environments. Despite all planning, we might still experience unanticipated tensions, and we'll also examine concrete language for responding to disruptions in the moment. Advanced registration is required.

• Wednesday, August 12
  10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Get Connected

Faculty and staff who would like to receive updates about how to support student voting, upcoming events, and resources as they become available should sign up for the Civic Education Collaborative mailing list.

• For questions or to get involved, please reach out to civiced@psu.edu.