It’s shameful.

The Trump administration is deliberately and strategically doing everything in its power — and many things not in its power — to diminish voting by college students.

The SAVE Act now under consideration in the U. S. Senate would create obstacles to many voters, including college students. Severely limiting mail-in ballots would make it more difficult for out-of-state students enrolled at Philadelphia universities to mail ballots to their home states. Students also have the right to choose to register and vote in the state where they go to school, but SAVE would create confusion and difficulties by requiring passports or birth certificates, which may be stored at their parents’ home. It’s legal for students with out-of-state driver’s licenses to register to vote in Pennsylvania, but new regulations would demand extra scrutiny and delay.

Trump has also issued Executive Order 14399, which would remove the Constitutional rights of states to oversee elections. Governor Shapiro has joined the lawsuit, led by California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Washington, and 17 other states, challenging this Executive Order, which, among other things, would use the United States Postal Service (USPS) to significantly restrict mail-in voting. Again restricting mail-in voting will directly diminish college student voting.

Governor Shapiro minces no words in his comments on this issue: “The U.S. Constitution makes clear that elections are to be run by the states, and here in Pennsylvania, we believe that the administration of elections should be nonpartisan,” said Governor Shapiro. “The good people of Pennsylvania will vote — whether in person or by mail — their votes will be counted, and the will of the people will be respected. Pennsylvanians choose their representatives, not Donald Trump.”

In addition to Trump’s more generalized attempts to suppress voting, the Trump administration’s Department of Education (DOE) has directly targeted student voting. In March, Tufts University announced that it has halted its National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE). For more than a decade Tufts has worked with the National Student Clearinghouse to produce valuable data directed toward increasing student voting. The DOE launched a probe in February 2026 with the bogus rationale of “protecting” the integrity of U.S. elections and student privacy. This rationale is hypocritical in the context of the Trump administration’s blatant violation of student privacy in demanding personal information about Jewish students and staff at Penn.

First-time voting can be confusing, especially in the current environment where confusion is being used as a partisan strategy.

As NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang reports, “The loss of data from the NSLVE reports has left the over 1,000 colleges and universities that participate in the study in the dark, as they try to figure out how to increase turnout among the voting-age cohort that is least likely to cast ballots in the United States.”

Trumpian efforts to suppress student voting go in direct opposition to federal law. The Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, specifically Section 487(a)(23), requires colleges receiving federal funding to make a “good faith effort” to distribute voter registration forms to students before federal or state elections.” For decades, universities have viewed it as a sacred responsibility to teach students about voting as an essential civic duty. In my years as a university president in red states and blue, I encouraged encompassing non-partisan efforts in the classroom and in co-curricular activities to understand the significance of voting in a democracy. The Trump administration, for petty partisan reasons, is making war on all that.

It’s criminal to suppress college student voting. If anyone had any doubts about that, I recommend reading excerpts from the winning essays in the Committee of Seventy’s annual essay contest, which this year asked high school students to reflect on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. These high school students will soon be college students committed to responsible citizenship. The grand prize winner, Laura Messamore, a senior at the Baldwin School in Montgomery County, wrote about checking on American ideals at the bus stop. She points out daily, rectifiable instances of inequality where mobility is practical, as well as social. And she reflects on what citizens can do about these inequities:

But sometimes things actually work. People show up to city council meetings. They explain that their neighbors shouldn’t have to dodge traffic to get to work. And every once in a while, the city puts up a shelter. Installs a bench.

Laura understands citizenship, its rights and responsibilities. We should all be ashamed of a federal administration that wants to make it more difficult for her to vote.

Let’s all ensure first-time voters … can vote

It’s important for universities to increase efforts to promote student voting. Many of us remember the first time we voted. I still recall the excitement and awe at my coming of age for this essential act of citizenship. As a babe in arms and subsequently through early childhood, I had accompanied my mother into the voting booth. She never missed an election, and I haven’t either. But even with voting as part of my DNA, the first time created anxiety. Would I make a mistake? Check the wrong box? Pull the curtain prematurely to end the process?

First-time voting can be confusing, especially in the current environment where confusion is being used as a partisan strategy. I call upon all Philadelphia-area universities and colleges to increase efforts to demystify voting:

• Provide counsellors to accurately explain PA election law so new voters will not be at the mercy of social media or false information from the federal administration.
• Prepare Frequently Asked Questions about voting to be distributed to all students.
• At a time when dates and signatures on mail-in ballots are meticulously examined, remind students to take extra time and care in following all directions.
• Student groups can organize car pools on election day to transport students to voting sites.

The general public can help by:

• Directly supporting university efforts to facilitate voting.
• Thanking Governor Shapiro for joining the lawsuit against the Trump administration’s Executive Order to federalize elections.
• Demystifying voting and encouraging young people to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by declaring their independence from misleading propaganda and voter suppression.

Elaine Maimon, Ph.D., is the author of Leading Academic Change: Vision, Strategy, Transformation. Her long career in higher education has encompassed top executive positions at Governors State University (IL), University of Alaska Anchorage, and Arizona State University West Campus, as well as distinction as a scholar in rhetoric/composition. Her co-authored book, Writing in the Arts and Sciences, has been designated as a landmark text. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum.

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