By Stevie LaBelle | Assistant Editor
Does Mount Wachusett Community College breed an engaged atmosphere in regards to elections and informed voter – culture? The overall consensus is no, it does not.
“The upcoming presidential election is invisible,” commented Professor Reed Hillman, a Criminal Justice and Politics professor as well as former Representative for the House.
Only months away from the primaries for both Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and yet there is no signs that a presidential election is coming. Hillman believes that this is the most crucial time in the election period. He feels that if more people would get involved in this stage, before the candidates for each party are chosen, then it would breed better candidates for our country’s presidency.
If citizens were more involved in researching candidates and becoming thoroughly educated about stances on critical issues, rather than just what is viewed on commercials, and heard on radio ads, than they could be more confident in who they are voting for. “People follow the wave and are influenced by society,” stated Nathan Oakes, a Criminal Justice major at the Mount.
Mount Wachusett Community College does take steps to make becoming a registered voter more accessible for their students. The Student Government Association handles offering the forms to register to vote to students at the beginning of the school and concurrent to their own election time periods. However, the number of students who actually take advantage of this opportunity is fairly low. In the beginning of the fall semester, only 30-32 students registered to vote on the campus, according to the Center for Civic Learning and Community Engagement. This Center is responsible for mailing out the filled out registration cards. They do this in order to offset the cost to students.
Why is the campus so detached from elections? There is a “politics don’t affect me” mentality often times when students are unaware of just how much their own lives truly are affected by whom is the elected officials at the time.
In order to solve this issue, there has to be a way to push students to become more aware and more involved. Nathan Oakes has thoughts on how to accomplish this: a mandatory single day graded informative seminar. He feels this would be a concrete method to enlighten students about politics, how they could get involved, and why they should get involved.
Hillman has hopes that as January and February approach there will a rise in excitement levels for the upcoming election. He hopes if involvement does begin that it is balanced so that all sides are equally represented. He strongly believes “an educated voter is a better voter.” Hopefully, students will take it upon themselves to become more educated and take advantage of the resources present at Mount Wachusett Community College.
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