Clearinghouse Severs Relationship With Student Voting Study

The National Student Clearinghouse has severed its 13-year relationship with a massive student voting study based at Tufts University after the Trump administration accused the study of violating student privacy laws.

The study, the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement, creates campus-by-campus reports about how much of their student body participated in a given election, as well as broader reports about voting trends among college students. NSLVE researchers do this using data provided by the clearinghouse that matches enrollment records to public voting records. (The data is de-identified before NSLVE receives it.)

Civic engagement advocates laud the project—which began in response to an Obama-era call for colleges to promote democratic engagement among their students—as an important resource in understand how college students engage in the electoral process. But in early February, the Department of Education said it was investigating whether the clearinghouse and the study were violating the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act; it also warned that institutions that using NSLVE data could also be in violation of FERPA.

Now, less than a month later, the clearinghouse has apparently ended its relationship with NSLVE, according to an email from the clearinghouse to the roughly 1,000 institutions that participate in the study. The Chronicle of Higher Education first reported on the news. The email states that the clearinghouse will be terminating its Participation Authorization Form—a form that institutions sign to allow the organization to use their data for NSLVE—by the end of the month.

In an unsigned email from the clearinghouse’s media relations email address, a clearinghouse official told Inside Higher Ed that the organization “[takes] our obligations under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) very seriously and [is] confident that our practices comply with all applicable federal requirements. We do not comment on matters that are the subject of an active review or investigation.”

Patrick Collins, executive director for media relations at Tufts, said in an email that the university sent ED an “extensive response” to its investigation on Feb. 20, in which the university argued that “NSLVE, by design, complies with FERPA and provides the higher education community with tools and findings to improve civic learning, engagement and instruction. NSLVE is a nonpartisan study that seeks to understand whether students vote, not who they vote for. All data received by the NSLVE research team are anonymized, and NSLVE’s reports include only aggregated data about overall voting trends.”

He said the study will be paused during the investigation, as ED requested. The university has not heard back from the department since sending that response. He also confirmed that Tufts learned about the clearinghouse’s message to participating institutions on Feb. 25.

Others in the student voting space are dismayed by the clearinghouse’s decision. Clarissa Unger, co-founder and executive director of the Students Learn Students Vote coalition, said the organization was “disappointed” to hear of the clearinghouse’s decision to end its partnership with Tufts, especially since ED hasn’t finished its investigation or made any finding.

“NSLVE is a vital, nonpartisan resource that has helped hundreds of colleges and universities fulfill their obligations under the Higher Education Act to encourage student voter participation,” she wrote in an email. “By ending their relationship, the Clearinghouse risks contributing to a potential chilling effect on nonpartisan efforts to help every eligible college student in the US participate in our country’s elections.”

But Unger said her group will continue its efforts to educate students about the voting process.

“While unfortunate,” she added, “the decision will not deter the nationwide movement for 100% voter participation among eligible college students.”