March 31, 2025
The University of Missouri–St. Louis has earned recognition as a “Voter Friendly Campus” for the fifth time in recent years. The designation comes from the Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project and NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. UMSL joined 272 campuses in 39 states and the District of Columbia on the 2025-26 list. Patricia Zahn, UMSL’s director of community engagement and outreach, explained that the university has been very intentional about its civic engagement initiatives, and because of that, they continue to grow. “I feel like we just keep getting better each time,” Zahn said. “We challenge ourselves to do a little bit more each year. I think having our polling place on campus is really a game changer. It elevates our civic engagement work because it makes it convenient for people to vote, but also makes them pay attention.”
With the support of the Chancellor’s Office and Events Services, Zahn and members of the UMSL Civic Engagement Coalition collaborated with the St. Louis County Board of Elections to make the Millennium Student Center a polling place for St. Louis County voters in 2022, and it has continued to serve as a polling place in subsequent elections. These efforts were noticeable during the November 2024 general election when more than 12,000 voters cast their ballots at the MSC. UMSL alumni Eric Fey and Rick Stream also played integral roles in making this possible. Fey and Stream oversee the St. Louis County Board of Elections as the Democratic director of elections and the Republican director of elections, respectively. Zahn added that the MSC will once again be a polling place for the upcoming April 8 general municipal elections in St. Louis County. From March 31 until April 4, the site will be open for early voting from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Early voting will also be available on April 5 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and April 7 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. On election day, the polling place will be open from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m.
