One of IR’s crucial roles is ensuring the quality of data used to make strategic decisions on campus. This work will be highlighted by a new survey from the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education (IDHE) at Tufts University. IDHE runs the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), which provides participating campuses with reports on student election participation following each federal election. These reports are produced by merging enrollment records managed by the National Student Clearinghouse with public voting files. NSLVE reports are used on college campuses to understand and strategically plan for student political learning and civic engagement. IR officers are designated recipients of this report because they are the campus authorities on data sourcing, reporting, and interpretation. They can help campus end-users understand the data and to understand institutional effectiveness at civic engagement and political learning. IR officers at colleges and universities that participate in NSLVE will soon be receiving an invitation to a survey on enrollment data reporting practices to the National Student Clearinghouse. The questions include handling of certain types of records, for example those without social security numbers or those belonging to nonresident alien students.

To learn more about the study or to find out if your campus participates in NSLVE, please contact NSLVE@tufts.edu.