Being a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison can be a very exciting experience. With our University placed directly in Wisconsin's capitol city, we often find ourselves in the middle of different political conflicts. We saw this with the Union protests that eventually led to the recall elections this summer. Not only did we see individuals from throughout the state flooding into our capitol, but we saw our students, teachers and TA's all standing up for the rights of our working people. The political atmosphere of our University, and of our town, exploded. We found ourselves in the center of a large political conflict that not only set the scene for Wisconsin politics, but changed how individuals viewed politics throughout the United States.
As we start a new school year, and look beyond the changes our legislature has made in the past months, we find the political atmosphere reducing to a hum. Though things have calmed for the moment, it's only a matter of time before we see this increase in political activism rise again. Talk of further recalls, overcoming Voter ID and a presidential election a little over a year away, we must find ourselves just as active as we were in these past couple of months. This could mean volunteering for efforts to recall Governor Walker or it could mean lobbying our administration and representatives for a change in student identification.
As a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I see how important the student vote can be. In the 2008 election we saw the importance of my generation's vote. Thus, looking towards 2012, I hope we cannot only repeat the excitement of 2008 but can also pull from the action and enthusiasm of this summer. I hope our student body can come together once again to stand up for what is important to our generation beginning with a change in student id's to meet the requirements necessary for Voter ID. We came together in 2008, and then did it again last spring and this summer. Lets see if we can do it again.
Janel Alters is junior majoring in political science, and media liason for The Young Progressives. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
