The Promise of Higher Education And American Democracy

Posted by Forbes on April 21, 2026

A core mission of nearly every college and university in the United States is to develop the best habits of good citizenship among our students. They come to our institutions to prepare for careers, to more fully understand the world around them and imagine their best place in it, and to learn how to be great neighbors and effective citizens. Participation in elections is an important part of that personal development, which is why it is a priority for so many campus leaders.

Most students become eligible to vote in their first elections while they are enrolled at our institutions. We help them to register to vote, we encourage them to participate in elections, and we provide access to objective sources of information about issues and candidates, but we don’t tell them how or for whom they should vote.

In the past few years, we have seen efforts to make it harder for young people to participate in our democracy and access civic engagement opportunities. States have relocated polling places from public university campuses, as well as limited or curtailed initiatives to promote election participation at colleges and universities. Last year, the Department of Education issued a prohibition on using Federal Work-Study funds for nonpartisan voter registration initiatives. And just last month, the Department launched an investigation into Tufts University’s National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), which Tufts has conducted in collaboration with the National Student Clearinghouse since 2013.

The irony of these efforts to stifle student voting is that federal statutes require higher-education institutions to do this work. The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended and the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 each include language about the responsibilities of colleges and universities to help their students register to vote and to understand their voting rights and the procedures for participating fully in elections.

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