In four years UTRGV student voter rate increased by over 26 percent, according to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement report.
The report compares the number of students that voted for the 2014 to the 2018 elections. In 2018, 11,500 students voted in comparison to the 3,200 students who voted in the 2014 election.
UTRGV’s Director of Governmental Relations, Veronica De La Garza explains the impact of the increase of student voters.
“Our students, not only being able to reach the national average but surpass it, really shows a lot of- kudos to all of our students, it just shows kind of the involvement that students are having and that they are registering and getting involved and making sure they are voting..”
With this recognition of progress by Garza, students such as Physics Senior Cedar Garcia tells UTRGV Radio the level of importance that voting has for her generation.
“I think it’s important to use voting as a process for educating yourself about political decisions that impact your day to day life. And you know, regardless of what your opinion on voting is, participating in the political process is an opportunity to do that for yourself.”
According to the NSLVE campus report, the national student voting rate is 39.1%, while UTRGV’s is 43.2%.
De La Garza explains how transportation needs and college hunger is tied together with voting.
“There’s all these issues that affect us on the day to day basis and it’s all associated and connected to voting and politics. So, you know making that correlation and making sure that young people, and our faculty and our staff go out and vote.“
Veronica De La Garza tells UTRGV Radio that she looks forward to the rise of student registered voters across the RGV.
Reporter: Samantha Garza
