Caroline Lee’s Thanksgiving break began at the White House.
Lee, the anthropology and sociology department head, spoke about the evolution of student voting rights at a White House panel on youth civic engagement last Tuesday. She addressed approximately 50 students and faculty in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, discussing the history of voting access for college students and its development over past decades.
“It was a really cool opportunity, after having worked so hard on our own here at Lafayette, to go talk to other people who were doing similar work,” Lee said. She serves as faculty director of the Landis Center and is actively involved in Lafayette Votes, an organization focused on politically mobilizing Lafayette students.
“Fighting for involvement in democracy takes time,” she continued, highlighting the journey from World War II to 1971 when the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.
The panel, moderated by White House intern Robert Healy, included Jennifer Domagal-Goldman from the All In Campus Democracy Challenge and Nicholas Crookston of Voto Latino, organizations that are focused on increasing democratic engagement.
“I got this invitation in the mail, totally out of the blue,” Lee said of the offer to speak at the panel. “I had not heard anything about it.”
At the panel, Lee traced developments since 2012 in encouraging college students to vote, including efforts by organizations to track and improve campus participation rates.
“Being around the next generation and seeing them actually improving democracy is very inspiring,” she said.
Chris Byrnes ’26, the co-director of Lafayette Votes, accompanied Lee in Washington D.C. His trip was funded by Every Vote Counts, a nationwide non-partisan organization with over 90 chapters across college campuses.
“It was fantastic to see different organizations come together and reflect on their efforts to get people mobilized to vote,” Byrnes said.
Christine Cohen, a Lafayette Votes executive board member, emphasized the significance of Lee’s invitation.
“She’s representing herself and Lafayette,” Cohen said. “I just thought that was really an impressive thing.”
Lafayette Votes has seen increased student engagement, registering an estimated 745 students to vote this year.
“That’s really an incredible number given the population of our campus,” Cohen said. “And I think just that amount of awareness and also the voting turnout is really impressive.”
Following the panel discussion, participants joined a town hall session where students and faculty shared challenges and successes in civic engagement across campuses, focusing on strategies that worked for their campuses and obstacles they faced in mobilizing voters.
For Lee, the opportunity to connect with faculty and students from various institutions reinforced the value of student civic engagement.
“As somebody who’s a political sociologist, it’s really important to improve democracy, but being around the next generation and seeing them actually doing it is very inspiring,” Lee said.