Higher education, specifically at Tech, is supposed to act as a sanctuary free from biased political agendas, a place where young minds are free to decide their own political opinions based on fact. Yet, it has fallen victim to the unfortunate consequence of being the adverse.
Many organizations on campus focus their political campaigns on ideologies, rather than platforms. Rather than letting voters formulate their own opinion based solely on a candidate’s stance, they continually force feed the student body reasons their candidate is the choice for us by belittling the other. Not only does this dismay potential voters, it also alienates them.
Organizations should focus on educating voters, many of whom will be casting their ballot for the first time, by creating an unbiased environment in which they can decide on the issues at hand. There are organizations that strive for this ideal. Wreck the Vote, a campaign designed to promote voter awareness, worked to achieve this goal through no political party. Overall, this was a step in the right direction and, with more public awareness and support, could prove to be a successful model for future organizations to follow.
Furthermore, these organizations should not only look to inform during presidential elections, but also to create a civic community built to continuously educate voters on issues that are close to campus, like past examples of TSPLOST and concealed carry.
Ultimately, this sort of initiative will not take hold if students on campus do not get involved. There are variety of policies that affect Tech students whether they are aware of the fact or not. It is because of this that the full responsibility of education does not rely solely on political organizations around campus. It should be a task that both the student and the organization work to complete.