This past week, our Student Association worked hard to organize and launch Impact Mississippi. The program, aimed at increasing the number of college-aged voters, has been initiated at all of Mississippi’s public institutions of higher learning. The initiative, a product of SA president Sebron Harrison, has garnered our university nationwide attention and press. Impact Mississippi is an attempt to get college students involved in the voting process. All citizens need to take charge of their civic responsibility and vote. The current War Against Terrorism illustrates how important the rights and privileges guaranteed in a democracy are to our nation’s freedom. Citizens in countries around the world are denied the privilege to vote, and to think that more than half of all citizens fail to vote in any given election is a shame.
Impact Mississippi undertakes a noble and needed stance on behalf of all college students. For decades, the needs and wants of the college-aged voter have been ignored by politicians and elected officials. This is evident in the failure of our own state legislature to put money into higher education.
Across the state of Mississippi, faculty at public universities are grossly underpaid, and essential classes are not being offered at some institutions due to a lack of qualified instructors. Tuition, however, has been rising steadily. The majority of money for education has been appropriated to secondary and elementary schools. This can be attributed to both the vocal lobbying of teacher and education interest groups and to the loyalty of most educators to the democratic process. The bottom line is that most educators vote to elect officials, while most students elect not to vote.
Impact Mississippi attempts to curb the trend of student non-involvement in the election process. If MSU students remain apathetic after Impact Mississippi, it is not because our SA failed to try.
Brooke Bliss, Josh Blades, Jane Anna Harris and Lee Beck have all worked tirelessly to make this program a success. The Stennis Montgomery Association, under the leadership of Brandon Jolly, has also been instrumental in ensuring that Impact Mississippi goes off without any problems.
These individuals embody what we, the MSU student body, want from an active student government.
– Zackory Kirk