University of Texas Permian Basin Honor Students had their work cut out for them as they tried getting their peers to register to vote Tuesday.
Honors Students are sworn in yearly to sign people up to cast ballots. On Tuesday, students sat at tables set up for people to sign up, but there were few takers and some of the ones that did sign up had to be talked into it.
Associate Professor of Art Chris Stanley said the Honors Program includes a humanities course, art appreciation and political science. Stanley and Associate Professor of Political Science Robert Perry teach the courses.
The deadline to register for the Nov. 7 election is Oct. 10.
“What we do is we smash those together and then stretch them back out so it’s all interwoven,” Stanley said. “It’s history, politics, art, so we’re following a pathway of human history from the Paleolithic all the way up to contemporary times.”
Stanley said the voter registration project started after Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, was elected.
“The overarching comment was what’s one thing we can do that would be meaningful and impactful from the eyes of a state legislator and Brooks had said register people to vote. So we have taken that project and turned it into a module in the class basically so that when we talk about things like voter rights and voter turnout, these students have firsthand experience with it,” Stanley said.
The deputy registrars interviewed were all sophomores. Grace Feddern said a lot of students don’t understand the voting process. She said some students say they’ll just worry about it when they’re older, like after college.
“My roommates are eager to fill it out (the voter registration form), so it kind of varies across the board,” Feddern said.
Alejandro Barajas said a lot of people in his generation don’t care about voting.
Onyemaobi Echi, an international student, is a distinguished observer, said most of the public’s opinion about voting is that it may not make a big difference, so what’s the point.
“Most people just give up after a while,” Echi said.
He added that that attitude makes an impact on younger people and that it causes people to be “ignorant and just not willing to vote or just not willing to actually participate in any form of election.”
“That’s been kind of an interesting change in the university. When we started the Honors Program, it was very rare to have international students and now it’s becoming quite common. The engineering program, the nursing program, athletics, (have) added to that diversity. The hope is that these students that come from all over the world see the way in which we register voters. They see some of the pitfalls, potentially voter apathy. You have conversations about that. For the way we teach in the Honors Program, it helps because this is an actual experience they’re having. When we talk about voter turnout in the United States being low, they can see it; see why it happens and how it starts. Certain groups of people that didn’t want to register to vote … why people don’t want to register to vote,” Stanley said.
Brinona Alva, Isabel Franco and Jacob Loera were registering people in the Residence Dining Hall.
Alva said people have just passed by their table.
Loera said it’s cool for the most part being part of helping people register, but it has been a challenge.
“For the most part, most of them don’t care, really. It seems like they don’t care about their right to vote,” he said.
Alva said she likes voting.
“Even though it’s just your one vote, it will make an impact eventually,” she said.
Franco said being involved has made her consider what her positions and values are “and what I would actually want to advocate for.”
Daniela Lutin was at a table in the Mesa Building courtyard. She said it’s necessary to vote.
“I think that it’s necessary … I think we need it, especially problems that we’re facing nowadays,” Lutin said.
Lutin said she was looking forward to voting growing up.
“I didn’t grow up around a political family but to me it was really important, especially because I’m going into the criminal justice major, so I think I’m … in an area where it’s a little bit necessary to know more about it especially with the presidential elections, I was really concerned about not being able to vote on time, whether I should do it or not,” so she did it when she turned 18, Lutin said.
Kennya Gomez, a senior, and Caison Cole, a freshman, registered.
Gomez said she is looking forward to casting her ballot.
