The Kozmetsky Center hosted a panel on voting registration and politics entitled “Your Vote Matters” in front of the St. Edward’s bookstore. The event brought together voices from a spectrum of partisan political organizations to answer questions presented by a variety of students, faculty and staff.
Kozmetsky, which seeks to connect the St. Edward’s community with outside civic life, recruited Travis County Democratic Party Executive Director James Murphy, Research Director of the Texas Politics Project Joshua Blank, Ph.D, and Austin Young Republicans member Benjamin Shrader to provide a holistic perspective on political issues.
“(At) Kozmetsky, we really want to get students involved with community and government, whether it be local or federal,” Kozmetsky Center intern George Reyes said. “This is a part of our initiative to get more students registered, informed about the upcoming election and get awareness on campus spread.”
Kozmetsky has continually brought political voices and authority figures to the university to educate students. Last semester, they hosted another panel on the 2024 election with a range of guest speakers from Austin. While St. Edward’s University is required to remain politically neutral in campaigns of any candidate or political party, Kozmetsky events encourage students to be informed from all sides.
“I think hearing both sides makes a more educated community, and a more educated community has a better shot at driving that community’s values,” former Austin mayor Steve Adler said. “An event like this that is bipartisan has the best shot at getting people to register.”
The event was held on Oct. 7, which coincided with the last day for residents to register to vote in the state of Texas in time for the November presidential election. In front of the campus bookstore, the center provided a table where Kozmetsky intern and environmental science and policy student Grace Hosek was registering attendees to vote in Travis County.
“People are more inclined to vote if they see their friends or people they know voting,” Adler said. “It also helps if they see (voting) as being approachable or more accessible, and that comes from a community drive like this.”
Like Hosek, all student interns with the Kozmetsky Center are Voting Deputy Registrars and have previously tabled in an effort to increase votership on campus.
To attract students to the event, the Kozmetsky Center provided pizza and cold drinks as well as free fanny packs for students who ask questions.
“I think college campuses are really exciting places to talk to voters,” Murphy said. “I think there’s also something special about college campuses where there’s a lot of first-time voters. You know, you only get to vote for your first time once, and so I think it’s an important group that we’re chatting to. Once someone votes once, they usually will continue to vote. So, this is really productive for us and for people who want to support voting.”
The Kozmetsky Center had several prepared questions for the panelists, but students were encouraged to ask questions as well. The panelists addressed questions regarding key issues that will be important to voters in the upcoming election.
“There were a lot of good questions,” Murphy said. “I appreciated the gun law (questions) as well. I think that’s such an important conversation, especially with young people right now. The only thing that I was disappointed by — and I think it was also because of who was on the panel — we didn’t talk about women’s rights, and I think that is really what’s going to be one of the biggest things of this election.”
