{"id":16261,"date":"2018-08-29T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=16261"},"modified":"2018-08-31T12:34:56","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T19:34:56","slug":"open-space-students-need-to-get-involved-to-have-their-voice-heard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2018\/08\/29\/open-space-students-need-to-get-involved-to-have-their-voice-heard\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: Students need to get involved to have their voice heard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camosun\u2019s student government is a political force made up of our own bodies. We are the people who sit down at the table with organizations like the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) to speak as a collective voice on the things that matter most.<\/p>\n

Camosun student affiliation with the CFS\u2014who recently expulsed Camosun students from the CFS due to ongoing clashes between British Columbia member locals and the national organization\u2014is linked to our ability to obtain, for example, student rights, lower tuition fees, and freedoms for marginalized students. This makes us directly responsible for being informed and making sure we get what we need in negotiations.<\/p>\n

Without knowledge, and without participating, we cannot do this.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
This is an expanded version of a story that originally appeared in our August 29, 2018 issue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes, we paid to be a part of this organization in exchange for their advocacy on a federal level. But despite having paid for their assistance, bemoaning problems that arise from poor or mishandled relations with the CFS seems pointless\u2014or, worse, actively detrimental\u2014if we have taken no initiative to learn about how it affects us, no action to ensure progress. It is time to get informed.<\/p>\n

According to Elections Canada, voter turnout was 68.3 percent in the 2015 federal election. For the 18-to-24 demographic, 57.1 percent of people showed up; that number may seem high when compared to young voter turnout of years past, but it\u2019s barely over half of the demographic.<\/p>\n

This means people of student age aren\u2019t voting in the numbers they should be. Despite the fact that we are the future decision makers and politicians of the world, we\u2019re not taking an interest in decisions or politics. That low percentage of young voters is an example of a larger problem. The next generation of leaders of this country aren\u2019t getting involved enough, and things are falling apart.<\/p>\n

I spoke to 10 Camosun students recently about voting in the Camosun College Student Society elections last year\u2014only one person said they had voted. That\u2019s a pretty small sample, so I won\u2019t claim to have any hard data, but, to me, that number doesn\u2019t look good. We don\u2019t seem to care what happens to our education, our money, our country.<\/p>\n

Almost half of us don\u2019t vote nationally, many of us don\u2019t vote at school\u2014we\u2019re not doing our due diligence in securing the future, and we\u2019re going to pay for that out of our own pocket.<\/p>\n

When you don\u2019t vote or make yourself knowledgeable about how the political system works, you\u2019re telling those in power, like the CFS, that you don\u2019t care what happens. You\u2019re making it clear that you won\u2019t advocate for yourself, and you become a victim of money grabs and power games by those who benefit from your silence.<\/p>\n

You lose control of your political voice.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t vote, lack of action also disqualifies you from the camp that has a right to complain about the problems that make your school life harder. You\u2019ve shirked your responsibility to yourself and so you forfeit your right to moan when organizations like the CFS start behaving badly.<\/p>\n

We are lucky enough to be students at a school where we\u2019re allowed to influence important decisions. Despite this, we take for granted the chance to make our voices heard, and as a result we lose our ability to do so. Getting involved is essential in learning how to advocate for your rights in the wider, crueller world outside college. However, more importantly, exercising your voice ensures that you can retain the freedom and ability to speak at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camosun\u2019s student government is a political force made up of our own bodies. We are the people who sit down at the table with organizations like the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) to speak as a collective voice on the things that matter most. Camosun student affiliation with the CFS\u2014who recently expulsed Camosun students from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,215],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views","category-august-29-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16262,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16261\/revisions\/16262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}