As college campuses gear up for another election cycle, a wave of nonpartisan efforts is registering students, training poll workers, and driving turnout at record levels. Yet these same efforts now face mounting resistance, including a Trump administration investigation into NSLVE, the primary data source tracking campus voting, and partisan accusations that get-out-the-vote work is politically motivated. This episode of Terms of Engagement brings together hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer with Jen Domagal-Goldman, the executive director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, and Yael Bromberg, a constitutional rights attorney and leading scholar on the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, to unpack what’s really happening on campuses today. Domagal-Goldman draws on her work with more than 1,000 colleges and universities to explain what’s driving student engagement and where new obstacles are emerging. Bromberg brings the legal lens, connecting these on-the-ground challenges to constitutional protections for young voters and the legislative push to enforce them. The episode explores what’s at stake for the future of student voting rights and civic participation in higher education. About our Guests: Jen Domagal-Goldman is the executive director of the national, nonpartisan ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, a position she’s held since 2019. Prior to joining ALL IN, Domagal-Goldman directed the American Democracy Project, a national civic learning and democratic engagement network of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). She has contributed to a number of civic engagement publications, including co-authoring chapters in Reimagining Democratic Societies: A New Era of Personal and Social Responsibility (2013), Becoming a Steward of Place: Four Areas of Institutional Focus (2014), Student Civic Outcomes in Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Methods (2017), and Leaning into Politics: Higher Education and the Democracy We Need (2024). Domagal-Goldman serves on the National Leadership Council to Advance Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement for All. She earned her PhD in higher education from Penn State, received her MA in higher education and student affairs administration from the University of Vermont, earned and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester. Yael Bromberg is a constitutional rights attorney with more than twenty years of experience in community organizing, advocacy, and litigation. She is principal of Bromberg Law LLC, of counsel to the New Jersey labor law firm Weissman & Mintz LLC, and a former chief counsel for voting rights at The Andrew Goodman Foundation, a national organization operating in over 25 states across 85 campuses. At Rutgers Law School she teaches Election Law and the Political Process and supervises the International Human Rights Clinic; she is also a Visiting Associate at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. She previously taught and supervised litigation in the Georgetown University Law Center Civil Rights Clinic and Voting Rights Institute, where she earned an LL.M. in Advocacy with distinction, and at American University Washington College of Law. Her landmark article, “Youth Voting Rights and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment” (University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law), has been described as a “groundbreaking study” and a “legal and organizing call for arms.” She is the architect of the Youth Voting Rights Act, comprehensive legislation to enforce the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which was introduced in Congress by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Nikema Williams. She also leads A Mellon Foundation–supported research project that engages Bard College and three HBCUs (Prairie View A&M, North Carolina A&T, Tuskegee) in applied legal research. She was named NJ Attorney of the Year (2024) by NJ Globe and received the first inaugural Reclaiming Our Democracy Award from NJ Citizen Action. About Terms of Engagement From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it. Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else. Contact Us Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at info@ash.harvard.edu. About the Hosts Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT. Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney. Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University. Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy. In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.” In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.” In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times. And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.” About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government. Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group
