The
rush for textbooks is always a frustrating experience that sucks wallets
dry, leaving students pinching pennies the remainder of each semester.
To prevent this continuous occurrence EPCC and Texas Student Government
Association (SGA) President, Damian Tovar is trying to increase student
awareness of the power of voting.
SGA
is taking the initiative to inform students the importance voting
by deputizing students to register potential voters.
VV Government Instructor, Lynn Salas, said she agrees and promotes
this political process because it’s a prospective way to encourage
the future.
“The government department has always supported SGA and this
deputization is just another step in a process to get the student
population politically aware,” Salas said.
“Our students are very involved in this community and are the
future of the community, so political participation is extremely valuable.”
With college tuition on the rise, books are becoming a bigger expense
for students. A newly proposed bill would regulate higher education
schools in Texas to use the same textbooks and editions for core colleges
throughout the state. This bill is still up in the air and requires
approval from legislators to become a law.
SGA President Damian Tovar
Throughout
the year, Tovar will be traveling back and forth from El Paso to Austin.
He will also be working with Senator Eliot Shapleigh to speak to both
to the Texas Higher Education Board and the Second Higher Education
Board about the concerns of the average college student.
Together they will try to cut taxes from new college textbooks and
used textbooks and also support the bill that’s trying to increase
the use of books in the state of Texas. Tovar said that the reason
legislators disregard the average working college student as a statistic
during their terms in school, are because of the lack of the students’
votes.
“What we need is a rise in student votes to show that we (college
students) are a demographic that they don’t think of,”
said Tovar. “Usually it’s the ‘Super Voter’
that comes to mind, which are the wealthy, retired and the elderly,
but we need to become part of it.”
Tovar hopes to raise student awareness and increase student voting
so that legislation can be passed to help and not hinder students.
“If over a million students were to bind together and vote,
we could all sway the capital, which is why student awareness of voting
is so important. Students have power which they don’t use,”
said Tovar.
To find out more about how to register to vote in the upcoming elections
visit any campus SGA or Campus Life office.
