Civic Literacy

The Civic Literacy Initiative seeks to foster a nonpartisan, civically engaged, and informed campus community. Through Student Affairs and Academic Affairs collaboration, we will help our students examine complex questions and learn to discuss them with confidence and respect for differences in thought, belief, opinion, and background. With a strong commitment to student success, freedom of expression, institutional neutrality, academic freedom, and nondiscrimination, we seek to support all students as they develop into leaders who can skillfully navigate complex conversations, increase democratic engagement, and build strong community ties through experiential learning.

AppVotes in conjunction with the Office of Community-Engaged Leadership created a Voter Coalition to meet the requirement to make a good faith effort to distribute voter registration forms to all students. The vision of AppVotes is to implement voter registration and education activities and increase student participation in local, state, and national voting and election initiatives this year and in future elections.

Dialogue Across Difference is an important value at Appalachian State University. To support this, we have partnered with the Constructive Dialogue Institute to support Mountaineers in building skills to practice constructive dialogue: a form of conversation where people with different perspectives try to understand each other – without giving up their own beliefs – in order to live, learn, and work together.

Explore how protecting free speech fosters a dynamic learning environment where ideas thrive and opinions are valued. App State upholds free expression as essential to a robust academic environment because safeguarding free speech contributes to a thriving and dynamic educational landscape.