As students filter onto the MTSU campus for the start of the fall 2018 semester, they’ll also be invited to embark on a new chapter in their civic lives: voter registration.

The American Democracy Project at MTSU and the Murfreesboro chapter of the American Association of University Women will register voters from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Aug. 27, on the lawn outside the Paul W. Martin Sr. University Honors College building, across from the Student Union.

A campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap.

The registration collaboration will be repeated on campus on Constitution Day, Monday, Sept. 17, and on Tuesday, Oct. 9, the last day of voter registration in Tennessee for the upcoming midterm federal and state and local elections on Nov. 6.

According to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement, 44.5 percent of MTSU students voted in 2016, a .5 percent increase from 2012. The 2016 voting rate for all institutions of higher learning participating in the study was 50.4 percent.

In June, MTSU launched its “True Blue Voter Initiative,” a partnership between the university and the Rutherford County Election Commission, to target summer CUSTOMS orientation sessions for incoming freshmen to register them to vote and provide information on absentee voting.

University officials reported earlier this month that nearly 200 new MTSU students had been registered to vote since mid-May through the new initiative.

The American Democracy Project also will join the True Blue Voter Initiative to provide voter registration information at the upcoming Sept. 20 Gubernatorial Forum at Murphy Center. Forum details are available at www.mtsu.edu/2018forum.

For more information, contact Dr. Mary Evins, ADP campus coordinator and an associate professor of history, at 615-904-8241 or mary.evins@mtsu.edu or AAUW Murfreesboro president Dia Cirillo at 773-677-4238 or President@AAUW-Murfreesboro.org.

— Gina K. Logue (gina.logue@mtsu.edu)

Incoming MTSU students Skyler Senesombath and Amy Lin register to vote as Zachary Brow awaits his turn at one of the “True Blue Voter” registration tables available this summer at the Campus Recreation Center during the CUSTOMS new student orientation sessions. The American Democracy Project at MTSU and the Murfreesboro chapter of the American Association of University Women will register voters from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Aug. 27, on the lawn outside the Paul W. Martin Sr. University Honors College building, across from the Student Union. (MTSU file photo by J. Intintoli)