The Necessity of Student Political Engagement
Washington, D.C. is home to some of the most politically minded students in the nation. Many are drawn to the universities here precisely because of location. At the heart of the nation’s government, opportunities for direct engagement and experience in politics are plentiful, and public figures and experts make frequent appearances on campus as speakers and even professors. It is no surprise that the biggest and most popular departments at Georgetown, American, and George Washington University are political science related, and each of these schools is home to more than 150 student organizations. It’s easy for students here to take these opportunities for granted, talking offhand about internships with big-name politicians and planning careers in policy while partisan clubs host events, plan protests, and invite students to join. But how can students who live outside of this intensely involved environment achieve the same level of political participation?
The most obvious first step is registering to vote. All students, regardless of location, have political representatives whose decisions will directly affect the student, and the ability to impact those decisions through voting is not only important, but necessary. It’s well documented that young people (ages 18–29) have lower voter turnout than other age groups; college students, though more likely to vote than their non-college educated peers, fall squarely within this demographic. Most universities offer voter registration services, which facilitate registration for students who will vote locally and via absentee ballot. Other than some basic research, however, registering to vote is incredibly easy.
Another easy step is to find a student organization with a political focus. Aside from the partisan organizations, like national College Democrats and College Republicans, many groups have specific agendas and areas of focus that cross over into politics; for example, most student publications have sections for current events or student affairs that could be forums for political discourse. Every campus should have a space for students to voice their thoughts on the administration or student life.
The internet provides an infinite number of opportunities to create such spaces or contribute to others. The Pensive Post, for example, is open to student writers and readers at universities across the country, not contingent on school or proximity to D.C. Other publications and forums exist that allow students to engage with political topics of their choosing, and even those students without any interest in writing can read and respond to other student work. The accessibility of online platforms also helps the spread of ideas, both within a single campus and between multiple schools, so a protest movement with an online or social media outreach could become a national student campaign within a matter of days. In this way, even if a university doesn’t host “political” groups, students can still be inspired and mobilize for issues they care about. There are also innumerable lectures, think tank events, news reports, and campaigns that are available online, so that geographic location doesn’t prohibit participation.
These are just a few of the many ways in which students at any school can engage in political discourse and activism. It may be easy for me, a government student at Georgetown, to promote student involvement in political issues, because I have physical access 24/7 to the internships and public figures at the core of our national government. That being said, it is incredibly important that young people take action for what they believe in, because we are the next generation of decision makers and we need to know what to do with that power. All students should vote, find or make spaces for political debate, challenge their administrations, and join organizations and movements that speak out for important issues, because these actions will make a difference no matter where you go to school.
