A primary goal in college is to explore a diverse environment that assists one in developing a sense of self and widening their horizons.
College serves as a location that provides a plethora of ethnicities, sexual orientations and, perhaps most importantly, political ideals.
Student politics are vital in providing college students with information on issues happening on and off campus.
The First Amendment of the Constitution allows for us to speak freely and express our ideas without presenting a clear and present danger. Doing so also allows students to constantly spread messages to their fellow peers and open their eyes and ears to issues that directly affect them.
The time a student spends in college is crucial in sparking one’s interest in a particular field and discovering one’s true identity.
Liz Friedman, author of the Pennsylvania State University article, “The Developmental Disconnect in Choosing a Major: Why Institutions Should Prohibit Choice until Second Year,” writes that many students enter college unsure of which field to study.
“An estimated 20 to 50 percent of students enter college as ‘undecided,’ and 75 percent of students change their major at least once prior to graduation,” Friedman wrote.
Students who are undecided upon entering college need an outlet of information to serve as motivation for choosing a specific major. That outlet can be student politics.
Student politics not only act as an agent of socialization that broadens student’s understanding on what is going on in and outside of their individual communities, they also help students decide their career goals, and act as tools for unification.
During the a march against gun violence on March 14, many students all over the country, regardless of their political views, joined together to protest gun reform. They did it in honor of the victims of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who lost their lives in a senseless act of violence.
Many will look at politics as a gateway to inevitable —opposition. But not enough people see the positives politics can provide.
Indeed, we all have the right to refrain from politics, but it will never hurt to open your mind to others perspectives, especially if you are still a young college student, still maturing and trying to find your place in the world.
