Mike Piacentino and Alessandria San Roman with the trophy recognizing UM as a Democracy Cup finalist.

Student-led initiatives that ranged from registering new voters to educating the campus community about important political issues have helped the University of Miami win special recognition from the Florida affiliate of a national coalition of almost 1,200 college and university presidents.

UM has been recognized as a 2012 finalist of Florida Campus Compact’s Democracy Cup, an award that recognizes student civic engagement during the 2012 election season.

“I was proud to see our students represented as finalists through the Democracy Cup,” said Andrew Wiemer, director of the William R. Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development. “They have worked hard this semester to develop a nonpartisan campaign to increase voter registration along with hosting successful voter information sessions. To have our students represented and honored at the statewide level is a testament to their hard work and success this past semester.”

During the 2012 election season, students organized events that included a health care debate between the UM Young & College Democrats and the UM College Republicans; a voter information session with the League of Women Voters; and a Get Out the Vote/Turbo Vote registration drive.

“I’m honored to have been a part of such dynamic programming, and I hope that our efforts made a difference on campus, especially to uninformed voters,” said sophomore Alessandria San Roman, co-chair of Get Out the Vote/Turbo Vote.

San Roman helped produce a video and written narrative summarizing UM’s campus-wide student-civic engagement efforts, submitting them to Tallahassee-based Florida Campus Compact for award consideration.

She and fellow student Mike Piacentino recently accepted the Democracy Cup finalist award at the Florida Campus Compact conference in Tampa, where they participated in a panel discussion on the past, present, and future of democracy.