by Karina Piser –
As I have learned from my recent reporting expeditions on the budget crisis, student activism is hardly thriving at UC Davis. This is not to say, however, that nobody is involved; there are a number of students working to increase involvement and awareness about UC issues.
When activists were successful in catching a student’s attention, they urged students to pledge—with their signature—that they would vote No on Prop 23. While some students seemed to respond with enthusiasm, many seemed hesitant to pledge.
The reluctance to take a firm stance is not a function of conflicting views but of a lack of awareness.
Despite a system-wide effort to get students registered to vote prior to the October 18th deadline, there has been minimal effort to ensure that the student body is educated on issues that direct their future and certainly influence their everyday lives.
Fourth year Viticulture & Enology major Erik Jurisch explained that “students are more concerned with midterms and their Halloween costumes than the midterm election. Although there are many student organizations put in place to increase awareness, like the Prop 23 people on the quad, most people don’t know what they’re going to vote for or why.”
Another student told me frankly: “I already voted, but I winged it. I didn’t have very much time to read about each proposition.”
At UCLA, significant efforts have been made to increase awareness and political participation on campus. At the beginning of Fall quarter, the California Student Association’s held a competition to see which UC or CSU campus could register the most students.
The contest’s results can be found on the Association’s website, and include registration numbers from a majority of UC campuses. UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley registered the highest number of students before September 21st, and UC Irvine and CSU Fresno succeeded in nearly doubling the number of students registered—579 to 1,664 and 81 to 187, respectively.
As a UC Davis student, there was something very puzzling about these results: UC Davis is not even included in the data. Every UC and CSU campus is represented in the attempt to register voters except UC Davis. Don’t believe it?
The No-On-23 advocates who sparsely lined the quad were not aware of the contest and did not know why UC Davis was not represented. This seems to be an error that could have been easily avoidable.
Who is responsible for ensuring political involvement on campus, and why does UC Davis appear to be plagued by political paralysis and apathy?
Although this paints a grim picture of political involvement at UC Davis, it is important to investigate why Davis students are not voicing their opinions and encouraging their peers to play a role in determining the future of their state.
[quote]Who is responsible for ensuring political involvement on campus, and why does UC Davis appear to be plagued by political paralysis and apathy? [/quote]
Well, IMHO, that would be the individual students… choosing NOT to be political is a choice, as is being political… there are limits to ‘politics’… should we vote to decide if we want to repeal an inconvenient “law”? such as gravity? Why should anyone “have” to be political to be ‘relevant?
That being said, our rights to vote, and to decide how active we want to be in influencing how others vote, is sacrosanct. I have no respect for ‘sideliners’ who decry the results of elections, but haven’t participated. I also tend to prefer that those who have no clue about the issues stay home on election day. As for me, I’ve read every voters guide and voted in every election since I was eligible to, at 18 years and one day old. I do not consider myself to be political, and am a ‘decline to state’ voter (although it was not always so)…
kp: “When activists were successful in catching a student’s attention, they urged students to pledge—with their signature—that they would vote No on Prop 23. While some students seemed to respond with enthusiasm, many seemed hesitant to pledge. The reluctance to take a firm stance is not a function of conflicting views but of a lack of awareness.”
I think your conclusion here – that bc students were not willing to sign a petition taking a particular position on a proposition, so therefore their “reluctance to take a firm stance is not a function of conflicting views but a lack of awareness” – is a huge leap. Perhaps those students who refused to sign the petition either did not agree with the petition, had not decided, or make it a policy not to sign petitions (I generally refuse to sign petitions). That does not necessarily mean students are not well informed on the political issues.
All three of my children voted when attending UCD, were pretty well informed on the political issues, but rarely signed petitions. One of my children was occasionally involved in conservative rallies on campus, and got a real “education” in dirty politics when it comes to demonstrations. Many students steer clear of demonstrations or signing petitions for very good reason…
Vanguard (Piser): Who is responsible for ensuring political involvement on campus, and why does UC Davis appear to be plagued by political paralysis and apathy?
hpierce: Well, IMHO, that would be the individual students…
In the context of this article, I disagree w/ hpierce.
From the article it sounds like the only folks who are interested in engaging the students to a cause are the No on 23 advocates. Why is that? For all her money, why aren’t Whitman staff and the Republicans more present on campus? Why aren’t the Democrats with their large support base in Davis? Either two of those organizations could mobilize voter registration drives. Obama was particularly effective at doing this in 2008, and he now enjoys the success of such efforts.
It’s a two-way street. You have to start by asking younger people to vote. Some younger voters might reject the solicitation, but more will vote if you take the time to encourage them to do so.
wdf1… let’s see… apparently you believe it is incumbent on the adults (other than parents)/candidates/administrators go get the students to vote and take an active role in politics…
where the heck were their parents the first 17 years? did they set the example? maybe I registered as soon as I could, so I could have a say because we were at war, and the economy stank… oh… now I see why students wouldn’t be motivated to vote… they don’t have any of those issues facing them…
I’m sorry, but I expect more from the vanguard than this. I realize it’s a student reporter’s piece, but it’s really poorly researched. For example, the point about the voter registration competition is moot since UCD is not a member of the UC Student Association and therefore was not a participant in the contest
I appreciate the effort made to cover students, but I resent the “apathetic” label being applied without input from, oh say, Davis College Dems or Republicans, student gov leaders, CalPIRG, or at least more than 1 random student not even majoring in political science.
Students may well be apathetic, but at least give some legitimate facts to back up that assertion.