The Brief

After the 2022 midterm election, a gap appeared to be shrinking on U.S. college campuses.

The turnout rate for student voters at community colleges was catching up with the rate at public four-year institutions, data suggested. What was a gap of 9 percentage points for the 2020 election had shrunk to just 3 in 2022.

"This told us that we needed to be doing more to support community colleges in their efforts to engage their students," says Clarissa Unger, executive director of the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, a nonpartisan network focused on boosting civic engagement on campuses.

"We would love to be able to see the 2024 data to see if those extra efforts to support community colleges did help [fully] close that gap," Unger adds.

But that data is now on ice.

In March, researchers at Tufts University announced that they've halted releasing statistics from the go-to source of school-level data on student voter registration and turnout — the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement. And the key source of student information needed to produce NSLVE reports, the National Student Clearinghouse, pulled out of working on the study going forward, after a more than decade-long partnership.

It's all part of the fallout from an extraordinary investigation into the study by the Trump administration's Education Department.

In a press release touting it as a move to "protect" the integrity of U.S. elections, Trump officials said they launched the probe in February to look into unspecified "reports" that NSLVE is in violation of a federal student data privacy law.

Many privacy experts, however, are skeptical of the accusations, which echo claims first raised by right-wing election activists.

Both Tufts University and the National Student Clearinghouse maintain they have not violated the privacy law. A Tufts statement emphasizes that NSLVE, which started in 2013, is a nonpartisan study "that seeks to understand whether students vote, not who they vote for."

Still, school administrators and other student voting advocates tell NPR they're already feeling the impact of the Trump administration's investigation in a midterm election year. The loss of data from new 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.

A focus of right-wing election activists became an Education Department probe

So far, the Education Department has not identified the source of what it described as "multiple reports alleging that the process of compiling NSLVE data involves illegally sharing college students' data with third parties to influence elections."

The department's press office declined to comment to NPR.

But Cleta Mitchell — a Republican election lawyer who took part in President Donald Trump's failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election — revealed a backstory during an online meeting of right-wing election activists in March.

In 2023, a fellow activist named Heather Honey, Mitchell explained, posted online a document she wrote about NSLVE. It claims that colleges and universities appear to violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act when they give the National Student Clearinghouse permission to share their student enrollment records for the study. The document also raises suspicion about Catalist, a Democratic-aligned data firm that was once involved with the study. The firm compiles public voter records from states and previously gave them to the clearinghouse to match with student information.

Tufts has maintained that its study is designed to comply with the privacy law.

Last year, Honey was appointed as the deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity at the Department of Homeland Security.

Heather Honey leaves the federal courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa., in 2024. The right-wing election activist wrote a document criticizing the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement before she was appointed deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity at the Department of Homeland Security.

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"One of the things that she did was send over her report and a proposal to the Department of Education — to Linda McMahon, the secretary of education — to say, 'You've got to stop this,' " Mitchell said in a recording of the meeting uploaded by a group called Pure Integrity Michigan Elections.

Mitchell went on to describe the National Student Clearinghouse's decision to stop its work on NSLVE as "100% the result of the work" of Honey and activists in Michigan.

"And so that's a real victory lap and one that I think we ought to celebrate," Mitchell added.

Mitchell and Catalist did not respond to NPR's inquiries. Honey referred questions to DHS' public affairs office, which said in an unsigned statement to NPR: "Heather Honey has not had involvement with the Department of Education's investigation. Her 2023 report is PUBLIC."

Brendan Fischer, who tracks the far-right election activist movement, sees Mitchell's comments as the latest connection between the activists and the Trump administration.

"This really shows the power and influence that a network of election conspiracy theorists are having over government policy and over the way that elections are run and civic participation is studied," says Fischer, the director of strategic investigations at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan voting rights group.

Since the 2020 election, Mitchell and other activists have built a grassroots network that's often attacked efforts to encourage voting among populations that they perceive support the Democratic Party. During the March meeting of Michigan activists, Mitchell criticized efforts to boost student participation in elections as attempts to "really gin up the Democratic turnout on college campuses."

On the same day as Mitchell's comments, another opponent of NSLVE publicly hailed the end of the National Student Clearinghouse's involvement with the study — the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank set up by former members of the first Trump administration, including McMahon, the current education secretary.

"AFPI is encouraged that students are finally being protected," said Anna Pingel, a campaign director at the think tank, in a statement that called the development "an important step toward ensuring that sensitive student data is not exploited for political purposes." The statement also said that AFPI sent a letter to the Education Department earlier this year with concerns about NSLVE and potential violations of student data privacy protections.

Fischer at the Campaign Legal Center — whose attorneys have filed multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration — points out that Trump officials are investigating NSLVE at the same time the administration faces multiple legal challenges to its murky handling of people's data, including state voter registration, Social Security and IRS records.

"There is a certain irony in the Trump administration repeatedly violating privacy laws and then turning around and shutting down this program studying college student participation in democracy, by arguing that it may have violated federal privacy law," Fischer says.

Colleges face tough decisions about whether and how to promote student voting

The Education Department in February sent a guidance letter to colleges and universities that advises school administrators to hold off on using "any NSLVE report or data this year" until the department's investigation is complete. The letter mentions the "number of enforcement options" the department could use against schools that are found to violate privacy law, including withholding or clawing back federal funding.

Amanda Fuchs Miller, who served as deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs at the Education Department during the Biden administration, sees the move as a "scare tactic."

"It's very unusual to send out a letter like that when there are no findings and nobody is found to have done anything wrong," Miller says. "A lot of these schools are small schools, community colleges, under-resourced institutions that may not have a general counsel's office to figure out what this means. And if they get this letter and they think it's putting them at risk, their Title IV funds at risk, their federal financial aid for students at risk, this [study] would be the first to go, which would be an understandable immediate reaction if you don't know what it really means."

Jackson State University students sign up to vote in Jackson, Miss., on National Voter Registration Day in 2023.

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Before the current Trump administration, the department has historically kept its data privacy investigations off the public's radar to try to encourage schools to more quickly correct any violations, explains Amelia Vance, a student data privacy expert who leads the Public Interest Privacy Center.

"It's really unusual to have these investigations talked about, announced, confirmed across the board," Vance says.

And if there are indeed any violations, the department could try to find ways to allow for the study to continue because, Vance adds, "the way the law was written, it gives a ton of discretion to the Department of Ed in order to allow for flexibility."

But for now, Melissa Michelson — dean of arts and sciences at Menlo College, a Hispanic-serving and Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander-serving institution in California's Silicon Valley that has participated in NSLVE — says many school administrators are bracing for potential tough decisions.

"I'm a political scientist and I believe strongly that everybody should vote," says Michelson, whose research focuses on voter mobilization. "But if I have to choose between being financially responsible and ensuring that Menlo College can stay open because our students can receive Pell Grants or continuing to participate in NSLVE and getting this data to inform our civic engagement coalition, I'm going to pick financial responsibility every time."

And in the middle of a midterm election year, schools that do decide to carry out their plans to mobilize student voters will be forging ahead with out-of-date data.

"That's troubling because for most schools, this is an iterative learning process," Michelson says. "You do something in one year, you get your data back and you see, 'Hey, what looks different? Did we get better in getting out the vote among our male first-year students? How are we doing with those business majors?' Without feedback from what they did in 2024, it makes it more challenging for schools to decide what to do in 2026."

The NSLVE investigation is not the first time colleges have struggled with Trump administration guidance on student voter registration

Miller, the former Biden official, notes that many college administrators were already having a hard time interpreting earlier guidance from the Trump administration on student voter registration.

Last August, the Education Department issued a letter saying that to avoid "aiding and abetting voter fraud," schools "may limit the list of recipients" when distributing mail voter registration forms so students who schools have reason to believe aren't eligible to vote aren't included. Federal law, however, requires certain higher education institutions participating in federal student aid programs to "make a good faith effort" to distribute forms "to each student enrolled in a degree or certificate program and physically in attendance at the institution, and to make such forms widely available to students at the institution."

The same letter also said schools cannot use federal work-study funding to employ students to help register voters or assist at the polls. But the department's Federal Student Aid Handbook does not include that restriction for students employed by schools for on-campus work.

"This has caused lots of confusion for schools and a chilling effect in doing critical work that promotes voting among college students," Miller says.

A group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey has asked the Education Department to reconsider its August guidance, which they say "undermines decades of bipartisan recognition that encouraging voter registration is a core public interest function of institutions of higher education."

Edited by Benjamin Swasey
Copyright 2026 NPR

A new trail across the beloved natural area of Elephant Hill in Northeast Los Angeles is officially opening this weekend.

The route is years in the making, and it's a big milestone in the decades-long conservation efforts to preserve this local jewel in the community of El Sereno.

The hiking trail connects one side of Elephant Hill to the other — from the corner of Pullman Street and Harriman Avenue all the way across to Lathrop Street.

It's 0.75 miles in total, but packs a punch.

"It's a pretty straight shot, but because of the terrain — the trail is kind of twisty and curvy. There's switchbacks — and great views," Elva Yañez, board president of the nonprofit Save Elephant Hill, said.

People have always been able to access the 110-acre green space, but Yañez said the new trail provides a safe and easy way to navigate the steep hillsides.

The El Sereno nonprofit has been working for two decades to preserve the land. Illegal dumping and off-roading have damaged the open space over the years. And the majority of the 110 acres are privately owned by an estimated 200 individual owners.

Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) joined the efforts in 2018, spurred by a $700,000 grant from Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District, in part, to build the trail. The local agency received some $2 million in grants from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to add to the 10 acres of Elephant Hill it manages and conserves. This year, MCRA acquired an additional 12 parcels — or about 2.4 acres.

And the spiffy new footpath — with trail signage, information kiosks and landscape boulders — is not just a long-sought-for victory but a beginning in a sense.

"We know that it means a lot to the community," Sarah Kevorkian, who oversees the trail project for MRCA, said. "We're wrapping up the trail, but it really feels like the beginning of all that is to come."

A hint of that vision already exists — for hikers traversing the new route, courtesy of Test Plot, the L.A.-based nonprofit that works to revitalize depleted lands.

"They're able to see at the end of the trail, at the 'test plot' — exactly what a restored Elephant Hill would look like," Yañez said.

Here's a preview:

The Venice Boardwalk after sunset has generally been a no-go zone for tourists and locals alike, as the beachside bars and restaurants close on the early side and safety is often an issue. Now, a group of artists is out to bring some vibrancy to the creative neighborhood with a series of new installations that will include live evening performances – and even a “Venice Opera House.”

“Let's play with light and let's play with sound and give people a reason to come to the Boardwalk after sundown,” said artist and entrepreneur Stefan Ashkenazy, who is curating the project and owns the buildings housing them. “I mean, let's just be open 24 hours a day.”

The concept doesn’t have an official name yet, but he’s been calling it “See World.”

Artist James Ostrer's space looks out from a bed through the fence to the ocean at Venice Beach.

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William Attaway, a longtime Venice artist, created a gallery space filled with various paintings and sculptures.

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The pair of modern buildings on the Venice Boardwalk at Thornton Ave. – with their big balconies, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and seven open garage-style retail spaces – have sat mostly empty since Snapchat vacated their beachside offices in 2019. Ashkenazy recently bought the building and recruited artists to fill those front-facing spaces with creative work until a full-time tenant comes in.

Over the past several weeks the installations have been created in real-time, in public.

All of the projects are loosely along the theme of “home,” with each artist claiming a “room” in the two buildings that stretch across a full block on the Boardwalk. Several local Venice artists are featured, including William Attaway, whose intricate mosaic work is recognizable on the Venice public restrooms along the beach. Attaway’s space features a floating larger-than-life-sized statue and various works in a mini-gallery. In the next room is Robin Murez’s pieces, featuring carved wooden seats from her beloved neighborhood Venice Flying Carousel.

Ashkenazy is no stranger to wild (and wildly successful) art ideas. He’s the owner of the Petit Ermitage hotel in West Hollywood, a longtime haven for visiting artists, and the founder of the decade-old Bombay Beach Biennale, where artists install all kinds of work in an annual event near the Salton Sea. Many of the artists from that community are featured at the Venice project.

A "Venice Opera House" will host pop-up music events throughout the summer.

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New York-based artist Greg Haberny's paintings on the wall of his Venice space.

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New York-based artist Greg Haberny and London-based artist James Ostrer have brought some of their work in the Bombay Beach Biennale to the Venice project. Their windows on the Boardwalk both speak to a child-like sense of wonder and creativity.

“I think it's just kind of exploring and playing a little bit, to have the freedom to be able to do that,” Haberny says of his imagined child’s bedroom space, which includes a fort made out of puffy cheese balls. “It's a big space, too.
It's beautiful.”

Ostrer is experimenting with a performance art idea where he sits in bed amongst a room full of his own artwork, which he describes as “happy art with an edge.” Looking out at the ocean from the bed, he’s invited passersby to sit and have chats with him about his work or anything else they want to talk about.

“It’s a very intimate space, so you have a different kind of conversation,” he said. “I use art to channel human creativity, and [talk about] dark things.”

While there are open fences that block off the spaces, they aren’t sealed up at night. Both Ashkenazy and the team of artists seemed open to the idea that anything could happen and that the installations are a conversation with the public – and with that comes some risk.

Greg Haberny (right) works with his assistants on an installation featuring kid-inspired graffiti art and a "cheesy puff" fort.

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“I don't really know if I [would] say worried, but I guess it's just the cost of doing business,” Haberny said. “I don't really make things to get damaged or broken, sure. But I have done [things like] burned all my paintings and then made paint out of ash.”

While he’s felt safe – and even slept overnight in the installation – Ostrer has been collaborating with a local female artist who performs in a pig mask in front of his installation some nights. Watching her perform, he said, has taught him about the vulnerability of women in public spaces like the Boardwalk. “I've started to, on a very fractional level, have seen how scary that is. Because I've sat in the bed behind her performing at the front here… the way in which men are approaching her and shrieking at her … it's shocking.”

Ashkenazy says he will keep the artists in the space, potentially rotating new ones in, until a fulltime tenant takes over.

“This is an experiment … and after acquiring the building, the intention wasn't, ‘let's open a bunch of public art spaces,’ he said. “It is kind of …what the building wanted and listening to what the Boardwalk needed. Let's play, let's have the artists that we love and appreciate have a space to play and engage and give the locals and the visitors to the Boardwalk something to experience.”

A coalition of residents from across the San Gabriel Valley are mobilizing over a battery storage project and possibly more industrial development in the City of Industry they say could pollute communities next door.

A protest is scheduled today in neighboring Rowland Heights, targeting a 400-megawatt battery energy storage facility sited on about 9 acres that was approved by the City of Industry leaders in January.

Such Battery Energy Storage Systems, or BESS, are used to keep the power grid stable, especially as output from renewable energy sources like solar and wind fluctuate. But fires involving lithium batteries at some sites have heightened environmental and public health fears.

Because of the City of Industry’s unusual, sprawling shape stretching along the 60 Freeway, it borders on more than a dozen communities, meaning what happens there can have far-reaching impact.

“Pollution does not end right at the border,” said Andrew Yip, an organizer with No Data Centers SGV Coalition. “Pollution travels.”

Some local activists with the Puente Hills Community Preservation Association have challenged the approval of the battery facility under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Beyond environmental concerns, locals have also been frustrated with how decisions are made by officials in the City of Industry, a municipality that’s almost entirely zoned for industrial use and has less than 300 residents.

Organizers say they’ve struggled to get direct responses from city officials whom they say have replaced regular meetings with special meetings, which under state law require less advance notice.

A city spokesperson has not responded to requests for comment.

The so-called Marici Energy Storage System Facility would be run by Aypa Power. The fact that the battery storage developer is owned by the private equity giant Blackstone, a major investor in AI and data centers, has only fueled concerns that a battery storage facility would lay the groundwork for data center development.

A request for comment from Aypa was not returned.

Today’s protest is taking place at Peter F. Schabarum Regional Park in Rowland Heights across the street from the Puente Hills Mall, a largely vacant “dead” mall, which activists fear could be redeveloped into a data center and bring higher utility costs and greater air and noise pollution.

Yip pointed out that industrial developments make a lot of money for the City of Industry.

“But none of these surrounding communities receive any of those benefits,” Yip said. “Yet we have to put up with all the harmful effects and impacts from this city that does all this development without really reaching out.”

It’s about the size of a park bench and made of steel and wood. The bench’s arm rests are formed by the letters “L” and “A” in a design that’s unmistakable to any sports fan. But the welder-artist who created it says it’s not a Dodgers bench.

“This is about civic pride, L.A. pride. I made a design statement saying that it has nothing affiliated with the Dodgers,” said Steve Campos.

Campos grew up near Dodger Stadium, raised by parents who were die-hard Dodgers fans. So much, that they named him after Steve Garvey but that legacy doesn’t keep him from confronting how the Dodgers benefitted from the mass displacement of working-class people from Chavez Ravine after World War Two. That’s why he calls it an L.A. Bench, and not a Dodgers Bench.

The logo may be synonymous with the city's beloved baseball team, but the design of the interlocking letters was used by the L.A. Angels minor league baseball team before the Dodgers moved to L.A. in 1958.

“The monogram was here before the Dodgers,” Campos said.

A second-generation welder

Welding is the Campos family business. His father created gates and security bars for windows and doors for L.A. clients. That was the foundation for the work Campos has done for two decades since graduating from Lincoln High School, L.A. Trade Tech College, and enrolling in a summer program at Art Center in Pasadena.

The inspiration for the L.A. Bench came last year while he was playing around in his shop creating versions of the L.A. logo. A friend he hangs with at Echo Park Lake asked Campos to make him a piece of furniture.

“I was trying to figure out what my friend Curly wanted. He liked Dodgers and drinking and getting into fights, so I was like, 'Let me make something with the LA monogram,'” he said.

Welder-artist Steve Campos created whimsical steel sculptures with the LA logo.

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It didn’t design itself. He said he had to lengthen the legs on the “A” and lean the back of the “L” in order to make the bench functional. In the process, he’s made a piece of furniture with a ubiquitous logo that he’s embedded with his own L.A. pride, as well as city history past and present.

LA civic pride travels to Japan

Campos vacationed in Japan the last week of April and took advantage of the trip to reach out to people who may be interested in the L.A. Bench. He was caught off guard by people’s reaction when he showed them pictures of it.

“They look at it and they go, 'Oh, Ohtani bench,'” he said.

For them, it’s still a bench embedded with pride, he said, but centered around Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, an icon in his native Japan.

Campos has made four L.A. benches and is selling them fully assembled, he said, for $2,500 each — taking into account his labor and how costly the raw materials have become. For now, he’s offering the metal parts as a package for $500, which requires the buyer to purchase the wood for the seat and the back — an easy process, he said.

While he has no plans to mass produce the L.A. Bench, he does have one goal in mind that shows how hard it is for him to separate L.A. civic pride and the Dodgers.

“I would love to get a couple of them installed at Dodger Stadium,” he said.