The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge has awarded a grant to Radford University to
fund Election Day activities for students as they await public transportation to the
local voting precinct.
Each year, the Radford Department of Political Science and Highlanders Vote sponsor
an Election Day shuttle for students so they can quickly and conveniently cast their
ballots.
The $2,000 ALL IN grant will be used to provide entertainment at the campus shuttle
stop. “We’ll be able to offer lawn games, DJs and band performances,” said Chapman
Rackaway, professor and political science department chair. “We’re going to put the
party in political party on Election Day 2026.”
The Nov. 3 entertainment is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“This grant will help boost our efforts to get students out to vote,” Rackaway explained.
“Civic engagement, encouraging students to conduct acts of leadership within the community,
is an important element of Radford’s culture of care.”
The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge empowers colleges and universities to achieve
excellence in nonpartisan student civic engagement. Through an intentionally designed
program that provides structure, support and recognition, ALL IN works to improve
civic learning, voter participation and ongoing engagement in our democracy at more
than 1,000 campuses nationwide.
In 2024, Radford earned a bronze seal from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge based
on the university’s 2022 campus voting rate. The university’s 2026 action plan earned
the Highly Engaged Seal from ALL IN, the organization’s highest designation.
In the spring, then-senior political science major Devin VanDyke ’26 was selected
to the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge 2026 Student Voting Honor Roll.
Radford’s initiatives to develop voter education plans and increase student voter
turnout at the polls have also earned the institution a Voter Friendly Campus designation
from the Campus Vote Project and NASPA, an organization of administration in higher
education student affairs.
Campus initiatives over the last five years have included the creation of the Campus
Voter Team and Highlanders Vote student organizations, both committed to helping Radford
students register and vote.