Voter Registration with SAAC at UNR
In the month of September, the SAAC Committee hosted two voter registration days for UNR students in order to get young voters the chance to change this upcoming election.
By Hallie Borgel
Voter registration as a college student can be stressful enough. Now having to deal with the chaos surrounding Covid-19 only just adds onto this stress. As the last date to register to vote approaches quickly, students all across the United States have been encouraged to get out and vote in order to play a role in choosing the next president. For many current college students, this will be the first time they will be eligible to vote.
With this, SAAC, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, has played a huge role across college campuses. I spoke to Drew Graft, a SAAC representative and academic athletic advisor at the University of Nevada, Reno. He went into detail about his recent voter registration day, the importance of voting and his role on campus.
Tell me a bit about what your position(s) is here at UNR. I’m an academic athletic advisor within the Petersen Academic Center here on campus. I advise the softball and women’s soccer teams and also work with the football team here at Nevada. I’m also the faculty liaison for Nevada SAAC.
What does it mean to be a SAAC representative?A SAAC representative is an extremely important role within the student-athlete committee. They are essentially the student-athlete voice for their peers to express specific concerns involving their sport, academics, student-athlete wellbeing and any social, civil, or community issues that might affect their programs. Their overall mission is to strive for progress and make the Nevada athletics experience the best it can possibly be for future and current student-athletes.
“Only 32% of young voters between the ages of 18–24 voted in the 2018 midterm elections.”
(US Census Bureau. “Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2018.” The United States Census Bureau, 22 Apr. 2019.)
I was informed you have a recent voting registration day held by SAAC. Tell me a bit about how it went? We did and we still have more coming up! We have one today outside the Petersen Academic Center as well as next Tuesday, Oct. 6 outside the Academic Center as well! Overall, the registration drive has gone great. We have worked with ASUN and the Center for Student Engagement to help provide registration forms, hand sanitizer, stickers, and goody bags. We are working hard to not only help register students and student-athletes, but also help educate the student-athletes on how to vote not only in Nevada on and before election day, but how to request an absentee ballot if you are a registered voter in another state.
In your words, how important is it for young voters to get out and register? I think it is extremely important. With college students and the specific demographic, I work with student- athletes, it’s often times easy to get caught up in your little world and forget about broader issues that could affect all of us. It’s important as American citizens to exercise our right to vote, and have our voices heard. Too many times we don’t think these issues can affect us or family and friends and they do and it’s important when the time comes to vote, we utilize our right to do so.
Lastly, how can students get more involved with the community and getting their voices heard? Students and young adults are the future so any time they speak out and let their voices be heard, it resonates with other individuals. They can learn about voter registration through the Office of Student Engagement and their website which has amazing voter information. There is also information of how to register to vote and the different ways to vote on the Nevada Athletics webpage. I think it’s also important to do some form of community service around Reno or their hometown. By doing so they can experience different perspectives and see examples of others that might not benefit from the same privileges that they have.
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