20 How does OSU prepare the next generation of leaders in our state and nation to be creative, as well as ethical, critical thinkers? How does OSU prepare its students to be critical thinkers in the democratic process? OSU does a wonderful job in preparing our future leaders — just look at our alums across the state and the nation in leadership positions. We are doing something right. I think the courses we offer in political science allow students to be creative, based on the content, the assignments and how our faculty members approach the courses. Further, we all, in political science, want our students to be ethical critical thinkers, and we do all we can to foster this in the classroom. In particular, many of our courses include content on democracy and the democratic process, and students show a great capacity to think about why the United States is a democracy and what benefits there are to this. Further, our comparative politics and international relations courses, to name a couple, explore democracy in a global perspective. I think our students are given all of the tools to succeed and become effective members of society, members who will be engaged in the process and knowledgeable. There is a difference between going to vote and going to vote and being informed about the issues and candidates. In political science, we strive to make sure our students become informed citizens. OSU typically has a low level of involvement overall (at least since the 1960s) of the student body in politics in comparison to other campuses. Can you comment on why that might be? Agree? Or disagree? I do agree with this overall; however, the students I encounter the most are political science majors, and these students are involved in politics. I keep hearing within There is a di fference between going to vote and going to vote and being informed about the issues and candidates.” Oklahoma that there is no reason to vote because we are a red state and that will not change. So if you are a Republican, there is no need to vote because others will vote Republican for you. And if you are a Democrat, your vote will not count. I try to counter this in my classes, because this isn’t quite true. At face value, yes, Oklahoma is a red state. But so many elections occur in a four-year span, and many local elections are decided by a few votes. Still, I think students buy into this logic, and this rhetoric gives them a disincentive to be involved. I also think students don’t feel connected to the process, the politicians and the candidates. The issues that students list as most important (for example, student loans, access to education and unemployment) are not the big-ticket items that get discussed by the media and the candidates. So unless students can relate to the candidates and politicians, they will not take the time to be involved because they do not see a connection personally. Students are an important part of the voting bloc. However, research dating back to the 1940s has consistently shown that young citizens vote at lower rates than older citizens. Describe the young voter situation in Oklahoma. The youth vote has not been large in modern-day elections, though much attention was focused on this in 2008 and Obama was successful and generating a large youth vote. In Oklahoma in 2008, close to 51 percent of people age 18-24 registered to vote and close to 39 percent of those age 18 to 24 did actually vote. This is low compared with other age groups in Oklahoma. For example, 68 percent of those age 65-74 voted in the election. Further, the number of youth voting in Oklahoma is much less than other states, where other states see 50 percent or more of those age 18-24 voting. Again, part of this comes back to the candidates and the parties making themselves accessible to young voters. But the fact that the youth vote is so much lower in Oklahoma comparatively is discouraging. It gives the impression that the candidates and the parties are purposefully ignoring this group, and that can have longer range implications. Voting is habitual and the earlier one begins to vote in their life cycle, the more likely they are to continue to vote. In the fall, thousands of students on college campuses throughout the nation will attempt to register to vote and be turned away. The reasons are many: You have an out-of-state driver’s license. Your college ID is not valid here. You pay out-of-state tuition, so even though you do have a state driver’s license, you still cannot vote. Some state lawmakers are doing everything they can to prevent students from voting in the 2012 presidential election. What are your thoughts on this? What’s the situation in Oklahoma? This is a hot topic right now as many states are implementing identification requirement that have the potential to exclude valid voters. This type of debate is not new, but it is very political. There are reasons to believe that the Republican Party would be advantaged by these types of laws, and for those reasons, this is not democratic. Voter fraud is not a large issue in the United States so the risk of alienating potential voters is not high enough in my opinion. Oklahoma passed the Voter Identity Law in the 2010 election, and this requires everyone to show proof of identity before they are able to vote. What this means is that a person needs an Oklahoma-issued identification card (driver’s license or identification card), a federally issued identification card or a tribal nation identification card. For college students, OSU identification cards are not valid because they do not have expiration dates on them. But students can
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