Bard College Awarded Grant to Support Voter Participation Ahead of Midterm Elections

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The national nonprofit Campus Connect has selected Bard College as a recipient of its 2026 Election Rapid Response Mini-Grant Program award. The college’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) will receive $5,000 to immediately fund a peer mentorship program with the goal of increasing civic engagement and voter participation among first-year undergraduate students.

“Bard and the Center for Civic Engagement have a proud history of helping students explore their civic identities,” said Erin Cannan, the vice president and managing director of the CCE. “We help students explore what it means to be engaged. And, we help connect them to the available mechanisms within the community to get involved. This grant is an opportunity to help make this engagement more visible to our newest community members.”

Campus Connect’s Election Rapid Response Mini-Grant Program is designed to support innovative approaches to student civic engagement that go beyond registration drives and standalone programs. The award is intended to promote high-impact, non-partisan activities that prepare students and campus communities for purposeful engagement around the 2026 midterm elections.

“This grant allows us to reach first-year students earlier and more personally than ever before,” said Damian Ramirez ’29, the lead student facilitator of the mentorship program. “Civic mentorship invites every student to the table, connecting them with a peer who can help them navigate not just campus life, but their role as engaged citizens and voters heading into the midterms. It's a small, direct investment that we believe will have an outsized impact on turnout and participation.”

For a half-century, Bard has been a leading institution in the fight to promote democracy on college campuses. In 1976, three students sued the town of Red Hook for the right to register to vote, which was ultimately upheld by the New York Supreme Court. The student body has repeatedly fought back attempts to limit students’ voting rights and, in 2020, a permanent polling place was established on campus. The peer mentorship program joins this long line of student-led activities.

About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place and Massena properties, Bard’s campus consists of more than 1,200 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; advanced degrees through 14 graduate programs; 10 early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 166-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at the main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.
 

This event was last updated on 09-27-2026

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