Letter to the editor

The 2018 midterm elections provide an excellent opportunity for voters to express either their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the current political landscape and its effects on our daily lives.

Students have rallied enough support to prevent the elimination of tax benefits such as student loan interest deductions, tax-free graduate student tuition waivers, and employer tuition reimbursements. This is partly because students are a powerful constituency. Young adults are a voting bloc nearly as large as the baby boomer generation. Now is the time to ensure that elected officials understand that students are watching and are ready to vote.

As a member of the Student Advocacy Coalition at UIC, I have seen the need for empowering students and the importance of relaying our hopes and aspirations to our elected officials before they are in office. The stigma associated with being a millennial college student is often misplaced. I’ve grown up hearing that students could work a part-time job and leave school debt free. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case.

Students want higher education to be prioritized once again. The Student Advocacy Coalition is doing something about this. We are hosting a Gubernatorial Candidate Forum to offer an opportunity for conversations to be held that can aid in the revitalization of the importance of higher ed. It’s not enough to talk about the hopes and dreams for the future, we want a society refocused on investment in the future, and that investment begins with the opportunity for every person regardless of socioeconomic status to receive a quality education. Join us on February 12 and demonstrate that students are paying attention to the midterm elections.

Marvin Slaughter

Student Advocacy Coalition President
Junior in political science and economics at UIC