Column: Students can sway the 2020 election
USC Aiken’s Student Life Facebook group shows us that students at the school complain. A lot. So, what does this have to do with voting?
College students and young adults historically have lower voter turnouts than older generations. This is not reflected in the population size of these voters.
College students—Generation Z and Millenials—represent one of the largest generational populations, quickly consuming that of Baby Boomers, who have historically had the largest voting population.
In a period of life where experimenting with lifestyle, identity and adulthood trials and tribulations, it appears that our demographic is either politically apathetic or uneducated about the voting process.
Campus Vote Project released a study that explains that most of this low turnout is due to multiple factors, some of which include: not having a driver’s license, not being contacted by political campaigns and frequent moving. Beyond these external factors, a lot of us are still unfamiliar with the process or are wary of it.
Those of us aware of the process have noted across social media platforms that our vote doesn’t matter. Having older generations holding the majority of the political and economic power undermines our younger generations’.
To reconcile this suppression, you have to recognize the steps of political activism.
The first step of political activism is the exercise of your voice. This step, while integral to the political realm, is not the be-all-end-all but is a step often forgotten or ignored.
USC Aiken students have demonstrated proficiency in exercising this right.
On the USCA Student Life Facebook page, students can witness daily updates from organizations, questions from students, comments on university policies and events and, more importantly—and especially important for me as News Editor—we witness democratic polls that are based solely on student opinion on the university's shortcomings or successes.
This is not the most important part.
From these polls, mostly born from student complaints and concerns, administrators are able to view and analyze student opinions and make policy changes.
We have all received emails regarding changes to previous systems, and these are because of our voice.
Recently, ICE—Inter-Curricular Enrichment—events have been under scrutiny from the students. From a poll, a few posts and numerous comments, USCA students received three emails in quick succession apologizing and attempting to address the ICE event issues including reformation of how they are recorded under student transcripts.
If we can take anything from college students, its that we complain and it works.
Keep complaining, keep showing up to the polls—whether it's online or in a voting center—and I am almost certain that our beliefs will be reflected in elections.
Politicians don’t lead the change. People do.
Administrators don’t initiate the change. We do.
A fellow USCA student, Kevin Jones, articulated this perfectly on the Student Life page in response to a comment on criticism of the new construction outside the administrative (Penland) building:
“Actually, complaining on here is the best sense of action we’ve got, as long as it’s over some reasonable matter. We are what makes this school and if we take action and stand up for s*** we actually care about, we can not only encourage change but enforce it,” Kevin wrote.
“We as a group are larger than them. I will do what I can to share my aggravations with the school and who ‘holds power’ and encourage others to do the same because that’s the only way we ever get anything in this world to change.”
This column is written with the opinions of one editor and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Pacer Times.
