Students: Don’t disconnect from government after the midterms

Opinion PAGE 5 • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2018 TECHNICIAN Students: Don’t disconnect from government after the midterms

A week after the 2018 midterms, results continue to trickle in from California and heated recounts in Florida. Yet it’s been clear since Tuesday that Democrats won the House of Representatives, while Republicans kept the Senate. Although not the tsunami Democrats had hoped for, the blue wave of 2018 has greatly empowered Democrats in the mission of protecting the country from the most dangerous elements of Trump’s agenda.

Although young voters favored Democrats by about two-to-one this year, they should not become complacent with this result and assume their interests will be well-represented by the current House. NC State students especially need to make sure that they pay attention to the actions of elected officials while in office and remind them that we need progress on issues ranging from climate change to economic justice, not just opposition to Trump.

The blue wave was built off an intensely diverse coalition of voters, but of these one of the most decisive groups was young voters who turned out at historic levels. According to U.S. News, youth turnout reached 31 percent, 10 points higher than in 2014. These turnout numbers are far from ideal, seeing as the election saw a 49 percent turnout overall, but they represent a significant improvement in the political engagement of young people over previous midterms.

That said, students need to do more than vote if we want to see change in our communities. The U.S. Congress is infamous for its slow, meandering policy process, and while this snail-crawl may have worked in previous years, we have a new and eye-opening deadline in 2030 for taking serious action on climate change.

We have to contact our elected representatives, both on the national level and on the state level, and demand that they work across the aisle to pass bold policies to curb our carbon emissions. A little-known fact about North Carolina is that we have the second-highest solar energy production of any state in the nation, but our wind production lags far behind.

Governor Roy Cooper just issued an executive order pushing the state to develop its renewable infrastructure, and with the GOP supermajorities in the General Assembly newly broken, now is the perfect time for Democrats to force Republicans to work with them to pass good policies, as Republicans will no longer be able to override Cooper’s veto.

Although climate change is an imminent and existential threat, that doesn’t mean

fighting it has to be all doom and gloom. The development and construction of green infrastructure is a great way of creating jobs at all skill levels, but especially for NC State students involved in climate or energy research. Noah Jabusch Although concern for the environment is a widely popular position, progress in our wildly polarized governing bodies is Opinion Editor no sure thing. Students need to make their voice heard on the issues that will most impact them: the health of the globe, access to new, high-paying jobs and fighting student loan debt, among others. We have historically let older generations wield far too much power over our future simply because they spend more time and effort on politics than we do. The midterm election demonstrated we may be waking up to this fact, but to really expand our influence, we need to keep it up throughout the year.

Opinion PAGE 6 • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2018 TECHNICIAN Half-baked: Bake sales are ineffective fundraisers

When I’m walking through the Brickyard, I often see scattered bake sales hosted by various student organizations. Upon these tables sit assorted baked goods, donuts or even store-bought cookies from the Target on Hillsborough.

At my high school, student organizations were never allowed to host bake sales for the sole reason of how inefficient they are for educating and gaining student support. Instead, organizations should implement issue-based fundraising in order to emphasize the significance of both their organization and the issue within the community.

Issue-based fundraising is not an official term and has not been researched in the field of service learning, but my high school used the phrase frequently to describe proper fundraising techniques. The general meaning is rather straightforward: the focus of the fundraising is on the issue, not the money. This means that the main goal of having a fundraiser should be on the education of others about the issue or organization.

The first half of issue-based fundraising is basic education about the issue. Fundraisers need to have information readily available for community members to learn about the topic. This is a very simple addon to fundraisers and can easily be implemented by student organizations.

As an example, this can include having a poster board available with information about the issue, its importance and why the money is needed. Moreover, the group can provide students with brochures or fliers with more information in order to educate the community and spread the importance of the issue outside of the Brickyard and into conversations across campus.

The second half of issue-based fundraising revolves around the fundraiser itself and ties it to the education aspect. The student organizations need to plan creative fundraising concepts that relate to the organization and enhance the students’ understanding of the topic. This simply means that the mode of fundraising needs to match the reason for fundraising.

For example, if an organization is trying to fundraise in order to buy flu prevention kits to distribute to low-income areas, then a bake sale doesn’t match the issue at hand. How are students meant to understand the importance of flu prevention kits and why the money is important if they are simply buying a baked good?

The iceberg model illustrates how changing or adjusting deeper elements such as mental models or patterns of behavior increase leverage with a person and lead to longer-lasting change. In other words, the model explains the need to go deeper than surface level if one wants to create conversations and student change that persists after the fundraiser ends.

When student organizations follow the issue-based fundraising model to focus on education first and fundraising second, then they can expect to see longer-lasting changes in the community. Not to mention, more creative fundraisers (anything

Zack Jenio

Correspondent

but bake sales) have the ability to gain just as much attention and revenue because of their ingenuity.

Although they are a cakewalk, bake sales are the most surface-level of all possible fundraisers and the least effective at educating the community. Student organizations need to think out of the box in order to develop fundraisers that change the perceptions and behaviors of the community.

“When student organizations follow the issue-based fundraising model to focus on education first and fundraising second, then they can expect to see longer-lasting changes in the community.