There are eight days left.
Eight days, that is, until the state elections on Tuesday, Nov. 8.
Over these next eight days, the Daily Bruin will devote much of its space to keeping the UCLA community informed of the election issues and to providing forum space within the pages of Viewpoint.
We'll focus especially on higher education and how these issues can affect the lives of university and campus community members.
Earlier this quarter, undergraduate external vice president York Chang was quoted in The Bruin as saying that past state elections have been decided by as few as 100,000 votes. With 163,700 potential student voters in the UC system, we're part of a powerful demographic group with, theoretically, the power to sway an entire election.
The problem is, not everyone votes. Not everyone gets involved.
The media often categorizes members of the 18-24-year-old age bracket as the apathetic "slacker" generation. With the budget in its current state, that's an easy characterization to make.
Many students work to pay for school, and most either don't take the initiative or don't have the time to organize and protest and demonstrate on their own. For nonstudents, it's the same. With the state's current economic constraints, working for personal gain is more important, and necessarily so. Simply put, we're not as visible in our activism.
So, in some ways, the apathy myth still stands. But we as a group have the power to change it.
What's not a myth is that in this academic quarter alone, more than 5,000 UCLA students registered to vote for the Nov. 8 election. Throughout the UC system as well, more than 20,000 students registered. And on campus, even in the past few weeks, we've seen hundreds of students mobilize and demonstrate to let their voices be heard on the election issues that concern them.
So despite what the media or anyone else says, we as a university community must not internalize these notions of apathy. We must challenge the apathy myth, and we must refuse to allow it to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Over these next eight days, we have the opportunity to make several very important choices.
They're important choices because who the governor is affects our education. Who's in the Senate affects our education. If Prop. 187 passes, it will affect our education.
And we have the right to make those decisions.
Over the next eight days, make a commitment to learning the issues for yourself, if you haven't already.
If nothing else, the campaigns so far have been characterized with dirty politics. Bickering and fingerpointing rarely educates anyone on the issues its aim is only to influence you who to vote for.
So before you enter the polls, educate yourself. Don't just watch the candidate-funded advertisements on television read the Los Angeles Times, read The Bruin, read anything to learn about how the candidates' policies on higher education could affect you. Learn how the individual initiatives, if enacted, could affect your education, your job and your life.
Learning the issues doesn't have to take a lot of time. Going to the polls to vote doesn't take a lot of time, either.
We have eight days left.
Make the choice to get involved.
On Nov. 8, we must fight the 'apathy myth'