Ringling College has been designated as a Voter Friendly Campus by the national nonpartisan organizations Campus Vote Project and NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. The College is one of 258 campuses in 38 states and the District of Columbia, and one of just three art schools to receive the designation. 

Ringling College was chosen as part of a select group of campuses from around the country that participated and received the designation for their efforts to break down barriers and empower students with the information and tools they need to fully participate in the political process. 

In 2022, the Ringling’s campus was named an ALL IN Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting, for its efforts made to increase voter participation. That year, the College was also recognized as one of “America’s Best Colleges for Student Voting” by Washington Monthly, a Washington, D.C.-based magazine. 

The considerable voting initiatives are a reflection of Ringling College’s institutional mission to prepare students to be discerning visual thinkers and ethical practitioners. The College balances the teaching of technical skills with critical, conceptual, and creative abilities, with courses that provide historical, multicultural, global, and future perspectives.

Director of Student Volunteerism and Service-Learning Rachel Levey-Baker and her department (soon to be known on campus as Community Engaged Learning), along with a group of student leaders led by Alex Pigg ’23, Creative Writing and Sarah Forest ’23, Film, along with community partners like the League of Women Voters, the Sarasota Supervisor of Elections, and other local colleges including, University of South Florida Sarasota Manatee, New College of Florida, and State College of Florida collaborated on the voter engagement programming that led to this acknowledgement.

“RinglingVotes is incredibly grateful to earn the Voter Friendly Campus designation as it recognizes the hard work of the group to increase student access to voter education and highlights that our campus realizes the importance of election engagement,” said Levey-Baker. “We look forward to continuing to build a culture of civic engagement by bringing voter education, tools, registration, and more to our campus in the future.”