BLOG: Students should pay more attention to political issues

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I didn’t just watch Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s speech because I was covering it for CM Life.

I can honestly say that I would have watched it regardless of whether or not I was assigned to cover the speech.

Why?

Because it’s important. Point blank.

Regardless of how you feel about Granholm’s politics and policies, it’s important to tune in and pay attention when the chief executive of our state is addressing her constituents because what she has to say directly affects you, especially as a student earning a degree.

Why do you think the Michigan Promise Scholarship got cut? Why do you think higher education funding in general gets more and more depleted every year – especially at CMU? (State appropriated funding to CMU went from 32.7 percent of CMU’s general fund for Fiscal Year 2008-09 to 26 percent for FY 2009-10 while our tuition went up 4.6 percent to make up the difference.)

Because students never contact their representatives and senators and make their opinions known.

If you’re trying to get re-elected, who are you going to cater to? College students that have a notoriously low voter turn-out rate or senior citizens who send you hand-written letters everyday complaining about this-and-that or thanking you for one-thing-or-another, not to mention the fact that they vote (And I know senior citizens do this because I’ve interned in the constituent relations department of a Michigan state senator and not only read the letters but responded to them).

You don’t need to be a political science major to figure out that one.

If students never speak up, their political clout is about as intimidating to an elected politician as a fish is intimidating to a shark.

So needless to say, you can imagine how disappointed I was when, after asking about 100 students if they watched the State of the State address, no one answered in the affirmative.

What?!?!

And I was in Anspach Hall no less, the apex of the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences of which political science/history/social sciences are all a part of.

Sure, sure, some may argue that the State of the State address was nothing more than a happy-go-lucky speech that talked about job creation and restoring the Michigan Promise and drawing the line on higher education funding cuts and so it wasn’t important to watch.

Well if your opinion is in fact the truth – which many would argue against – then here’s the counter-argument to it: If students don’t watch the State of the State address then what are the chances that they watched Granholm’s Jan. 29 speech about a four-part government reformation plan or the chance that they’re going to watch her Feb. 11 speech in which she delivers her executive budget recommendations?

Very slim.

Surely you can’t argue that those speeches were/are unimportant. See my point now?

By the way, the projected state budget deficit for FY 2010-11 is floating around $1.7 billion.

That means that, despite Granholm’s promises to restore the Michigan Promise and prevent more funding cuts to higher education, the Michigan legislature is still faced with an enormous task of balancing the budget and, as always, higher education funding will be affected because there simply isn’t enough money to go around.

Granholm said that government can’t be all things to all people.

And maybe she’s right.

But government should certainly care about its educated work force – or lack-there-of if they keep up these budget cuts to higher education – and so that’s where you come in.

Pay attention to government!

Because the decisions that are made today will affect you tomorrow and in the days to come.

And no (critics), I am not suggesting that CMU students are mindless idiots who haven’t a clue as to what’s going on in government.

Don’t be so dramatic.

I’m making this argument because of my failed attempt at interviewing 100 students that didn’t watch the State of the State address and after reading about a recent study conducted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which is designed to gauge college graduates’ knowledge of civics, public philosophy, civic behavior and demographics, on The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Web site.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s fourth study has yet to be published but the results from 2008 found that “people whose highest level of educational attainment was a bachelor’s degree” only answered 57 percent of the questions correctly on average, a whopping three percentage points lower than a passing grade.

Its conclusion was that “many graduates of American colleges cannot answer basic civics questions,” ensuing that while in college people don’t pay attention to civic issues.

The results for 2009 aren’t expected to be much better.

Richard A. Brake, a co-author of the report, “said results of the studies in the last four years showed that many universities do not place enough emphasis on civics or the basics of American history.”

That is not to say CMU is at fault for student’s not actively participating in politics because, after all, the university has no control of a person’s free will.

But it is proof that, across the nation, college students are paying attention to politics in low participatory rates.

Of course, I only have a personal experience and one study to back up my claim so go ahead – prove me wrong.

Prove that everyone on this campus and on campuses across this country are aware of – or have a pretty good grasp on – what is going on in their local, state and national governments.

I wish you the best of luck.