Based on their press releases, structure and spokesman, it’s sometimes hard to believe that the group known as #StudentVoicesCount is only a month old. Born out of the uproar over the lack of student tickets at the Oct. 28 GOP Debate on CU Boulder’s campus, the organization has become nationally recognized, being featured in national media outlets such as the New York Times and USA Today.
Perhaps what sets the group apart is its desire to remain non-partisan and all-inclusive. The goal at the start was simple: get students more tickets. If the school wasn’t willing to oblige, then they would create their own method of getting students to participate.
“It was originally created from a couple of students that were actually more interested in doing some sort of protest to the debate being here on campus,” explains #StudentVoicesCount spokesman Aaron Estevez-Miller. “As the event started to grow on Facebook, some of the original founders started to see that it could do something more.”
After the Facebook event (titled: #StudentVoicesCount: #BeHeard Student Broadcast) began to pick up traction, the group found themselves with plenty to work with. Millennial news networks BeHeard and Free Speech TV wanted in, and news broke on Oct. 24 that democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley would be joining the broadcast. With 48 hours left until debate day, there were roughly 1,100 people RSVP’d for the event.
But it hasn’t just been about the tickets, it’s been something deeper. #StudentVoicesCount has another platform revolving around the concern of ‘political theatre’ and the disenfranchisement of young voters. While the tickets are a part of inclusion, they also represent something more.
“It’s a missed opportunity on CNBC’s part, on CU’s part and the RNC’s part,” Estevez-Miller argues. “The entire concept of this exclusion of the fact that there is gonna be that locked door between the campus community and the debate is just damaging to the psyche of the students.”
And it’s all about the students. #StudentVoicesCount takes their stand on non-partisanship very seriously, choosing to remain unaffiliated with groups such as College Democrats at CU Boulder.
“It’s extraordinarily important, and it’s a battle trying to convince people that are outside of the movement what our true intentions are,” contends Estevez-Miller. “With liberals and conservatives involved in our group, we have this whole wide spectrum of perspectives represented.”
That spectrum covers everyone, from liberals wanting the opportunity to welcome the debate, to conservatives feeling disillusioned about their party not wanting to engage them. All sides were welcome, because all sides felt spurned. So, as a group, they decided to act.
The date and time for their livestream event that will be held at the University Club building was chalked all over CU’s campus sidewalks, and the event looks like it will become a hub for interested students the night of the debate, along with events in the University Memorial Center. And it doesn’t end when the smoke clears and the media and RNC clear out.
“I think we’ll just have to wait and see how the country responds to our broadcast to our message and what the next opportunities are once we get there,” Estevez-Miller says. Some of the next opportunities may come at the University of Houston, the site of the final GOP debate before Super Tuesday. With the ticketing situation in Boulder becoming a hot button topic, there is a chance that the students of UH might suffer a similar fate. If that is the case, Estevez-Miller voices that #StudentVoicesCount will be there to provide any type of assistance and to be, quote “helping them advocate for themselves and trying to transmute some of this movement onto their campus.”
But for now, the group is solely focused on their debut this Wednesday. The number of tickets has increased, albeit by only 50, and the number of RSVP’s for the event keep growing. However incremental it might seem, the work being done by #StudentVoicesCount, advocacy groups, and activists have created a space for students to participate in the political process. And if the students turn out the way organizers hope they will, then the space will be filled and the message might be received after all.
