Photo provided by JSU NAACP
Jaiden Smith
Managing Editor
Students gathered on the 1st floor of the Student Center to watch live coverage of the gubernatorial and legislative election on November 7.
This event was hosted by Jackson State University’s student run organizations, NAACP Youth and College Division chapter and the campus chapter of Mississippi Votes, JSU Votes.
A series of voter events were hosted on campus beginning at 11 a.m., in an effort to increase campus awareness, participation, and engagement in the voting process.
The day started with a Stroll to the Polls as students marched the Green-Gibbs Plaza to the Student Center voting location.
Between the hours of 12 – 3 p.m., members of JSU NAACP walked the plaza, reaching out to students as they conducted a voter registration drive and membership drive.
The day ended with the election watch party. The Student Center was decorated in red and blue balloons as the live DJ provided music to maintain the fun, up-beat energy of the room. Card and board games were provided such as uno, spades, and chutes and ladders to encourage student engagement as the elections were broadcasted across the monitors in the student center.
Food was also provided and included pizza, spinach dip, wings and juice.
Professor Jacobi Grant, Ph.D., the JSU NAACP advisor was a part of the driving force behind this event.
“There was a lot of work but the biggest thing is organizing and getting the students interested,” Grant said.
Grant believes in the importance of exercising voter rights and wanted to do his part in spreading awareness across campus.
“A lot of students don’t understand the importance of socio-political civic engagement and so getting them to not only take the information seriously but actually participate is often quite complex,” said Grant. “Food tends to be the common theme that gets people out but paying attention and actually understanding and making informed decisions matters as well.”
Some students at JSU believe this election is especially important for students because many of the current issues on the campus are directly affected by who holds the position in the governor’s office.
“America was designed for people to participate and select individuals to make decisions for them in regards to their life and just based on my academic background, I find that to be very important and something I just happened to have a strong passion towards,” Grant explained.
Grant also serves as an educator at Jackson State in the Department of Criminal Justice. He is especially passionate about student engagement in such elections.
Grant offered this advice to students on exercising their right to vote.
“Stay politically informed, know who serves in what positions and always remain abreast of elections and aware of the socio-political issues with each election,” Grant said.
Although student engagement with the gubernatorial election was successful, Grant still wants students to be aware that there are other important elections happening that impact student life.
“A lot of people were concerned with the governor’s race when other races, like the attorney general’s race, were just as important as the governor’s race. I can only preach and encourage students to remain aware and educated on the political process so they can make complete informed ballots of vote,” he said.
A large point in the discussion of the importance of voting is the knowledge that the winners of state legislative and gubernatorial elections will directly affect student life at JSU.
“A lot of what’s going on now at Jackson state, as far as how it impacts us is political. Legislators who just got elected are going to be the ones who allocate funds to the institution,” stated Grant. “The governor that gets elected will be the one who prioritizes certain programs that target or are beneficial to individuals or college-aged students. The state treasurer’s office hosts the programs that they have for students to prepare to go to college. Those are all things that will go into the next political spectrum that impacts students directly.”
JSU NAACP Membership Chair Calaeb Pickens said the events hosted were successful.
“I organized the membership drive and we got over thirty-four members today,” Pickens said.
Pickens, a sophomore public health major from Jackson, Miss., wanted to stress that this election was just as important as campus elections.
“The same energy that you put into campus elections such as Royal Court, SGA, and CAB, you should put that same energy into statewide elections. If you all can vote and get somebody 1,000 votes on a student body election, then you can do the same for gubernatorial and other important elections,” said Pickens.
JSU NAACP member Kiden Ivey, wanted students to know that the Mississippi gubernatorial election was important to non-resident students as well..
“Exercise your right to vote is no matter your age, classification, or where you’re from,” Ivey stated. the sophomore, accounting major from Tulsa, Okla.
“You are a part of the change. You are a part of things that matter on and off campus. Even if you don’t believe so, it directly affects you as a Jackson State student,” said Ivey.
Many Jackson State students had strong opinions about the elections and took advantage of the election watch party to have important discussions with their peers.
Hannah Russel, a political science major from Biloxi, Miss., is one of the many students who came out for the event.
Freshman Journei Harris is aware of the intimidation elections and voting can have on incoming freshman because many are new voters and are not even registered.
“A lot of freshmen come in not knowing much about politics and stuff like that,” Harris claimed.
Harris, a Jackson native majoring in social work, encouraged classmates and future generations of freshmen to take the time out and do the research to make educated votes.
“It took a quick little Google search and watching the news to know what was the right choice. I want to make it known here at Jackson state for the incoming freshman that this should be normal.”
Harris wants other college students to understand the importance of voting, register to vote and to not shy away asking questions to become informed.
