Bard Acting President Jonathan Becker Speaks About Student Voting Rights on the SpeechMatters Podcast
Bard College Acting President Jonathan Becker argues that institutions of higher learning should explicitly support youth voting.
Bard College’s Acting President Jonathan Becker appeared on the SpeechMatters podcast to discuss the ongoing struggle for youth voting rights in the United States. SpeechMatters is a project of the University of California’s National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, and features guests who are tackling the issues of free speech and democracy on college campuses. Becker was joined by host Michelle Deutchman, as well as Yael Bromburg, adjunct professor of law at the American University Washington College of Law. They addressed a range of issues, including the history of youth voting and on-campus voting, the civic impacts of student voting, and the structural and psychological challenges to broader enfranchisement of young people. Becker argued that institutions of learning should not be neutral, but explicitly and forcefully in favor of student voting. “Young people are the future of our democracy, and would we rather have engaged citizens, or passive citizens who are not involved in our democracy?" he said. "I think if you believe in civic participation, then you believe in young people voting.”
Becker, who coedited a recent book about youth voting rights, also spoke of his volunteer teaching experience in Kiev, Ukraine, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, and his dismay upon returning to New York's Hudson Valley to discover efforts by local officials to limit youth voting. “Having promoted democracy abroad, I discovered that our students here were systematically denied the right to vote locally,” he said. “As someone who spent half of their life abroad, the idea that we should be promoting democracy abroad, and coming home and some local official in Dutchess county is systematically denying students the right to vote is…outrageous.”
Post Date: 08-27-2026
Becker, who coedited a recent book about youth voting rights, also spoke of his volunteer teaching experience in Kiev, Ukraine, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, and his dismay upon returning to New York's Hudson Valley to discover efforts by local officials to limit youth voting. “Having promoted democracy abroad, I discovered that our students here were systematically denied the right to vote locally,” he said. “As someone who spent half of their life abroad, the idea that we should be promoting democracy abroad, and coming home and some local official in Dutchess county is systematically denying students the right to vote is…outrageous.”
Post Date: 08-27-2026