COC Vote Center, located in Seco Hall, Room 101.

College of the Canyons is the only California community college named among “America’s Best Colleges for Student Voting” by Washington Monthly magazine for its commitment to inspiring students to vote and actively participate in community decisions.

To document the efforts of colleges and universities promoting civic engagement, the magazine highlighted more than 230 institutions around the country.

“The Center for Civic Engagement at COC is extremely proud to have been recognized for a third consecutive year by Washington Monthly magazine,” said Patty Robinson, faculty director of civic and community engagement initiatives at the college. “Encouraging our students to take an interest in civic engagement for the betterment of their communities is our driving force.”

COC participates in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, a national, nonpartisan awards program recognizing colleges and universities for improving civic learning, political engagement, and student voting rates. As a part of this initiative, students, faculty, and staff have worked together to develop and implement an action plan to increase voting and civic engagement.

During election seasons, COC hosts numerous discussion panels and distributes nonpartisan materials that provide additional information on propositions and candidates.

The school also participates in the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), which provides colleges and universities with data on student registration and voting rates. These numbers provide benchmarks to measure the success of future voting engagement efforts.

To be included in the magazine’s student voting honor roll, COC had to submit its 2020 and 2022 action plans to the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. In addition, it had to sign up to receive data from the NSLVE and make its 2018 and 2020 NSLVE data available to the public.

Of the 26 California community colleges participating in the ALL IN challenge, COC was the only one listed on Washington Monthly’s honor roll.

“Schools need to have shown a repeated commitment to increasing student voting—and have been transparent about the results,” said the magazine about its eligibility criteria.