USM Votes!


As part of the USM commitment to civic engagement and civic education, the USM institutions are supporting student engagement in the upcoming election in a variety of ways. Click this link for information about and resources for voter registration, voting, and other ways of getting involved with the 2020 election.

In Fall 2017 , the USM Board of Regents convened the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Workgroup to make recommendations on moving the civic education agenda forward. The workgroup's three-part mission focused on civic education, civic engagement, and civic responsibility. Read the report here.

On November 8, 2019 USM hosted a System-wide Civic Education/Civic Engagement (CECE) workshop (agenda) at the UMBC Tech Center South to bring campus teams together to report out on the campus-level progress on the three committees that came out of the Regents’ Workgroup on Civic Education and Civic Engagement. The workshop addressed three questions: (1) What progress has been made on each campus with respect to the three committees? (2) What are the major challenges you face on your campus related to civic education and civic engagement, and how can we problem-solve them together? (3) What do institutions need to move this work forward on their campuses? 

The day-long workshop included keynote address from Regent Linda Gooden, a student panel moderated by Regent Michelle Gourdine, and breakout groups facilitated by campus teams representing the three committees (Carnegie Classification, Curricular Integration, and Voting and Census). The Curriculum Integration Committee developed a tool, a “Maturity  Model,” for campuses to assess current civic education integration. Highlights of the breakout sessions linked here.

In addition, the National Study of Learning Voting and Engagement (NSLVE) presented the most recent summary report on the voter registration and voting statistics for the USM.

List of Workshop documents:

  1. Full agenda
  2. List of participants by institution
  3. Draft Civic Engagement Implementation Maturity Model
  4. Breakout session notes
  5. NSLVE summary report for the USM

USM Civic Education/Civic Engagement Workgroup


A key recommendation from the Regents' Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Workgroup was that the University System of Maryland establish a System Civic Education/Civic Engagement (CECE) Workgroup to support the implementation of the recommendations. This Workgroup is chaired by Deb Moriarty, Vice President for Student Affairs at Towson University and Karen Olmstead, Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Salisbury University.

The CECE Workgroup will comprise 3 subcommittees:

  1. The Civic Education and Civic Engagement Subcommittee on Voter Registration and Participation will research and identify best practices in campus voter registration efforts. The subcommittee will also initiate institutional partnerships in support of voter registration as well as engaging campuses and students in the 2020 Census. The subcommittee will identify ways USM can support these efforts. Resources
  2. The Civic Education and Civic Engagement Subcommittee on Carnegie Classification of Community Engagement will survey Carnegie Classified institutions and identify the procedural and organizational elements that facilitated successful applications for the distinction. The subcommittee will also devise collaborative mentorships between institutions and identify ways USM can support the process. Resources
  3. The Civic Education and Civic Engagement Subcommittee on Civic Education and Engagement Curriculum Integration will research and identify best practices in integrating civic responsibility, democratic engagement, and community-based learning into undergraduate and graduate majors and programs. The subcommittee will initiate institutional partnerships to advance these efforts and identify ways USM can support campus work. Resources


Langenberg Lecture and Symposium: Civic Education, Civic Engagement, and Civic Responsibility: Foundations of a Democratic Society


On April 20, 2017, UMB hosted the Langenberg Lecture and Symposium: Civic Education, Civic Engagement, and Civic Responsibility: Foundations of a Democratic Society PDF download . The event was sponsored by USMF with collaboration from Maryland Association of Community Colleges, Maryland Higher Education Commission, Maryland Independent Colleges and Universities Association, Maryland State Department of Education and featured a lecture and conversation with the Honorable Barbara Mikulski, breakout sessions for leaders and practitioners from across the P-20 spectrum to discuss the role of higher education in democracy PDF download, and a panel discussion on the role of information in democracy.

We invite you to explore this site, contribute to it, and stay in touch with news of civic engagement work on your campus or in your community.

Senator Mikulski at the Civic Engagement Symposium



The 2012 Association of American Colleges and Universities National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement recommended that Americans:

  1. Reclaim and reinvest in the fundamental civic and democratic mission of schools and of all sectors within higher education
  2. Enlarge the current national narrative that erases civic aims and civic literacy as educational priorities contributing to social, intellectual, and economic capital
  3. Advance a contemporary, comprehensive framework for civic learning—embracing US and global interdependence—that includes historic and modern understandings of democratic values, capacities to engage diverse perspectives and people, and commitment to collective civic problem solving
  4. Capitalize upon the interdependent responsibilities of K-12 and higher education to foster progressively higher levels of civic knowledge, skills, examined values, and action as expectations for every student
  5. Expand the number of robust, generative civic partnerships and alliances locally, nationally, and globally to address common problems, empower people to act, strengthen communities and nations, and generate new frontiers of knowledge

In response to these recommendations, a desired outcome of the April 2017 civic engagement symposium was to continue the conversation about deepening institutional practices with regard to civic engagement. One way to do this is to develop and maintain a repository of ideas and resources for USM and non-USM institutions to share so that they may find ideas and replicate best practices. Please explore the resources found to the right and share your work with us in the future.

Resource Links:


Pictures from the 2017 Langenberg Lecture