Symposium Addresses and Encourages Civic Engagement

An audience member asks a question at the 
Civic Engagement Symposium on Monday
Photo by Johnna Guillerman

By Matt Barnes and Johnna Guillerman

Five panelists discussed voter rights and civic education in the Pearl Stable Monday night, at a symposium organized by Trinity’s political themed online magazine, The Contemporary.

The panel consisted of Marisa B. Perez-Diaz, Texas State Board of Education member, Jason Stanford, communications director for the mayor of Austin, Juany Torrez, founder of Organize SA, H. Drew Galloway, the executive director of MOVE San Antonio, a voting recruitment organization, and George Rodriguez, a conservative activist who worked for the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations.

Benjamin Collinger, Trinity sophomore and the Executive Director of The Contemporary, introduced the panel with a brief statement, “We need the mobilization of millennials to represent us in this era of political polarization. We are gradually building a movement.”

However, few millennials attended. “I thought there should be more involvement by the college aged crowd. Look at tonight’s turnout, nearly everyone here is over 50,” said Caroline White, 39.

Organizers of the symposium even delayed the start of the discussion for 10 minutes due to the poor turnout.

Robert Rivard, director of the Rivard Report and moderator of the event, said in a comedic retort, “We are going to be looking at mostly empty seats, we are trying to fill the empty seats of the world,” referring to the symposium’s intention of trying to fill empty votes in elections.

And voter turnout was a focal point of the symposium, as all of the panelists felt very passionately that voting mattered. Some audience members asked why voting is not a holiday and how to solve the problem of low voter turnout. “We all want the same thing, but there are so many ways to get there,” said Juany Torres. Different opinions on how to get there caused controversy throughout the night.

While a majority of the panelists agreed that registering more people to vote and making voter qualification less strict would help to solve the problem. However, George Rodriguez disagreed. “Only those people that are eligible should be voting. What’s wrong with everybody verifying that they can vote?” he said.

This comment caused a spark. Marisa B. Perez-Diaz responded, “It’s an issue of resources. It’s not as cut and dry as you’re making it seem.” A voter must have a way to get to the polls, must be able to take the day off, and must be informed about issues.

Despite some disagreement, all of the panelists agreed that the democratic process must start locally, and they encouraged getting involved at the local level.

“There’s a tremendous amount of civil energy. Showing them what’s next, that everything is local, is really important,” said H. Drew Galloway. Getting voters involved, not only in national elections, but more importantly local elections, is where a change can begin.

The panel also discussed how to get the public to dismiss the notion that their votes do not matter. “My friends and family don’t vote because they feel like their voices are ignored,” said audience member Cassandra Ramirez, 27. “After growing up on the south side of San Antonio we are used to looking up at the north side and seeing all the things we don’t get. New roads, street lights, park projects.”

The panel was also interested in civic education, emphasizing that the younger generation has a civic duty to spread the importance of voting.

“We need to spark something really early on with kids who haven’t had that exposure really. It’s not a lost cause,” said Marisa B. Perez-Diaz. “It is important for us to break it down, civically engage people. Break it down as to why it’s important.”

To civically engage young people may not be completely hopeless. One audience member, Hanna Niner, senior sociology and political science major at Trinity, said “I want to gain more knowledge and insight on local and federal politics.”