TX Votes, a student organization working to increase electoral participation at UT, announced a new initiative at the beginning of December called Civic Champions to monetarily incentivize students to get involved in civic events in their community. 

Civic Champions intends to strengthen TX Votes’ Civic Engagement Alliance (CEA), a coalition of University organizations promoting civic participation across UT, according to their website. It said Civic Champions encourages participating organizations to complete activities within the categories of voting, volunteering, advocacy and community building. It also said organizations that demonstrate participation in all four categories will earn an “exemplary status” from the Annette Strauss Institute and will be eligible to apply for a $500 cash prize. 

Scott Poole, president of TX Votes, said he hopes the Civic Champions program will help revitalize the CEA after he noticed a post-COVID reduction in student organization participation both in the alliance and at the University.  

“Our focus here is to fulfill the mission of Texas votes, which is to make sure that every student at UT’s campus has the tools, resources and understanding to vote, to volunteer, to get involved in advocacy and to be a member of the Austin community,” said Poole, a government and history junior. 

Organizations that meet the qualifications to receive an exemplary status will be invited to participate in Great Conversations, hosted by the Annette Strauss Institute on March 21. The event gathers elected officials, journalists and policymakers and gives organizations the opportunity to discuss their work with community leaders.  

Diego Lopez, a member of the CEA, said he hopes the Civic Champions Program will encourage students to find new, creative ways to increase civic engagement both on and off campus. 

“It’s really about helping to engage a broad and diverse group of people in the political process, and this includes people who maybe wouldn’t engage in civic activism otherwise,” said Lopez, a government and Plan II junior. 

Vivian Dovalina, a Texas Rising student co-leader, said she thinks the program’s cash incentivization method and its ability to help organizations fund their internal projects will likely encourage students to get involved and get civically active. 

“I definitely do think this is a really cool program and a program that could benefit a lot of different organizations around campus,” government sophomore Dovalina.

Organizations interested in participating in the Civic Champions program can find more information and an online application on the Annette Strauss Institute’s website. 

“Not every university student gets to have the Texas State Capitol in their backyard,” Lopez said. “We have an obligation as students, as people who are trying to make the world a better place, to engage with the community civically.”