“There are 44 million college-aged students in the entire country and most of them feel like their voices are not going to be heard so they don’t vote,” said MTV’s Sarah Patterson and Nick Brown on Wednesday, September 9 at a campus event called Decision 2016.
Decision 2016 was an event with a mission to get students to come out and discuss the importance of voting without discriminating along party lines and where they fall.
Beginning at 7:00 p.m. in Jarman Auditorium, the campus student programming board, Lancer Productions, brought this interactive forum where MTV Real World/Road Rules Challenge stars Patterson and Brown talked about topics like women’s rights, the legalization of marijuana, student loans, the cost of education and more.
“I think this event went extremely well! We are still getting positive feedback from it because students were happy that they could come out and learn where to start when it came to voting and politics,” said Megan Drewry, the Lancer Productions student who planned the event.
Throughout the event, Patterson and Brown both emphasized the importance of researching the candidates that are running for office and knowing what they stand for and what policies they support. They also spoke about the importance of being informed and about how impactful their single vote can be.
The MTV duo also stayed after to do a meet and greet with students, getting to know them further and answering any questions they had about what was previously discussed during the forum. According to Drewry, Patterson and Brown were amazing at encouraging students to get involved with politics and to stay informed.
Drewry said, “They were so friendly and really wanted to get to know every student that came out. They were such great people to work with and because of them, the event was incredible!”
The presenters also explained to students where they could vote and how they could vote. They also encouraged students to start voting and get involved with local elections and local politics, in order influence their own communities and to understand the bigger elections that are coming up next November.
“I learned that when I vote in my local community, I can make a huge difference,” said Drewry. “Then that difference goes up, up, up, all the way to thepresidential election.”
At the end of the event, Patterson and Brown wanted to remind the over sixty students who attended, “That when 44 million college-aged students can get together and vote, they can make a huge difference on the world and on our country.”
