As federal government pressure presents challenges to higher education, three Boston area student associations — the Assembly for Civic Engagement in Higher Education (ACE), Boston Intercollegiate Government (BIG), and Educational Freedom Project (EFP) — are working to provide opportunities for students to engage in political activism within the higher education system. 

Wellesley College students heard from these groups at a recent panel that Wellesley’s Committee for Political Engagement (CPE) hosted at Wellesley College on Oct. 6.

Wellesley student Sydney Briggs ‘26, the content director of ACE and chair of CPE, anchored the panel, which featured EFP founders Zi Glucksman ’25 and Jack Masliah ’26 of Northeastern, Megan Lim ’25 of MIT, and Wellesley student Elizabeth Hollmann ’28, who is also the Outreach Lead of ACE. 

Briggs described ACE as “a channel of communication between the state and students on a larger scale, for the entire state of Massachusetts.” 

The association hosts weekly meetings to discuss action items and plans convenings for members throughout the academic year, the most recent of which took place at MIT on Oct. 18.  

The organization aims to follow the model of New York and California, who have statewide college governments in direct collaboration with the state government, according to Briggs.

“[The organization is] more micro stuff right now, but the larger vision is to make some sort of institutionalized structure for students to be able to talk to each other,” Briggs said.

After witnessing the Trump administration’s crackdown on international students and research funding in June 2025, Glucksman and Masliah were inspired to found another organization to encourage students to engage in political activism, the EFP. 

“We had been trauma-bonding over the shared experience of being a student in this political moment,” said Masliah. “We were feeling helpless and empathetic and not knowing what we should do, but knowing that we should do something.”

According to Glucksman, the EFP is fighting for “the promise of higher education; it should be a combination of learning, teaching, expression, and opportunity … [I hope the EFP will] push our universities towards these values, to fulfill that promise,” he said.

Glucksman also spoke about what he perceives as dangers to higher education from various angles. 

“[We want to] defend higher education from both internal threats, like administrative issues, and external threats, like the declining value of a college degree with the emergence of AI or overreaches from the federal government,” he said.

Numerous factors affect the public perception of colleges and universities, and a Gallup Poll released in September found that public confidence in American institutions of higher education has declined over the years.

“Selectiveness, lack of financial support for lower income students and students with disabilities, housing shortages, and a general lack of wraparound services that would enable students to actually benefit from the education, all lead to diminishing return on investment of a college education,” said Glucksman. 

The Trump administration’s targeting of research funds has further impacted the quality of higher education. 

“Research funding cuts and universities ceding to Trump’s demands” causing universities to “completely abandon the idea of academic independence, [and] the idea of freedom of speech,” Masliah said.

Glucksman and Masliah saw an opportune moment in the current political climate for college students to address both preexisting and challenges with educational freedom.

“We saw all these national protests happening, and people kind of standing up for what they believe in,” said Masliah. “We think young people should be leading the movement to fight for their future.” 

The BIG takes a more centralized approach, with its mission being to advocate for students’ interests at the city, state, and national levels, promoting civic engagement and collaboration. 

BIG includes 14 member schools, and while Wellesley does not currently have any representatives in the association, historically, the college has sent two each year.

In many parts of the world, youth movements play a significant role in creating change. The leaders of ACE and the EFP agreed that young people have unique power in activism.

“We have the ability to create the future for the next generation, and I think we have a responsibility to do so,” said Glucksman.

With the advent of social media, many of these youth coalitions have utilized online platforms to communicate across time zones and enable more dialogue. 

“Young people overall are willing to just talk to each other and that’s how we’re going to build a stronger movement,” Briggs said. “[We] have a view of the world where we’re constantly thinking about these larger issues, with the benefit of not having to stress about full time jobs yet … We’re the ones that are inheriting this world, and the group who will be affected by the decisions politicians are making…so I think it’s important for our voices to be included,” she said.

The student panelists touched on the importance of what Briggs called “organizing with joy” as well.

Many students are involved in multiple extracurricular organizations, taking challenging courseloads, working jobs, pursuing internships, and maintaining a social life, or some combination of the above. 

With these commitments, finding the capacity for activism can be difficult. Briggs said she felt burnt out after several years of organizing, forcing her to rethink her approach.

“The way to do [advocacy] sustainably is to make sure that you feel connected with those around you, because those are the ones, they’re gonna lift you up, kind of like a team,” she said. “I mean, your teammates are the ones that keep you there.”

Masliah hopes students will feel empowered to be vocal about their concerns and beliefs, whatever they may be, through at least one of these organizations. 

“It takes courage to stand up for our values when they are under attack, as they are now,” he said. “But we must attempt to maintain the integrity of the institutions.” 

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Lyanne Wang