Holly Greer
No microphone, props, slide shows or gimmicks, Congressman Brad Miller met with an audience of close to 25 students, faculty and staff in an intimate setting.
“When I first became involved in politics, it was a time of great political activism for young people,” Miller said. “This last election was the first time we’ve seen something like that again.”
However, looking around the student cinema of Witherspoon it was hard to tell students at N.C. State helped make the congressman’s statement true.
“I really don’t know what is wrong, we do a lot of advertising, a lot of marketing,” Jose Picart, the vice provost for diversity and African-American affairs, said. “It’s fascinating to me that people don’t come out.”
The students in attendance found it worth their time to meet an influential leader such as Miller.
“I like to stay active in politics, and I wanted to hear what [Miller] had to say about education,” Drew Law, a freshman in history education, said. “He was a very good speaker, and I agreed with a lot of what he had to say.”
The leadership development series was purposefully designed for freshmen like Law.
“This is important for students to meet the people that represent the U.S. Congress, and ask them about the issues they are passionate about,” Locke Whiteside, president of the NAACP student chapter, said.
For many, this may have been a once in a lifetime chance to be up close and personal with a congressman.
“It’s a lifelong process, and we should take every opportunity to learn about how we can get involved,” Picart said.
Miller touched on pertinent political issues in the lives of college students, but also encouraged the audience to look beyond its own needs.
“I hope your political involvement will not just focus on what affects you, and how. I urge you to look at the society in which you live, what you are about and what we want to be,” Miller said.
The small audience asked how one can achieve these goals.
“You should want to be in a society where we love our neighbors as ourselves,” Miller said. “By taking steps, by being at this meeting, by advocating, and being involved in politics — I don’t have a quicker or easier answer than that.”
Miller also spoke on social security reform, the renewal of the voting rights act of 1965, and cuts to student loans — things that directly affect NCSU students.
“More important is the consideration of the kids who aren’t going to go to college because they can’t borrow the money to do that. When the Pell loan program was first introduced, it paid for 84 percent of the total cost of education. Now, it pays for 39 percent,” Miller said.
A goal of the student chapter of the NAACP and its leadership series is to show that by going out to vote for the people who oppose laws that are detrimental, students can make change happen.
“There’s a lot of apathy on campus and it can hurt us, and it will. Students will continue to stay at home and not come to these programs and it’s sad,” Whiteside said. “The Civil Rights movement was led by people in our age group. So who’s to say we can’t make changes?”
The next installment of the leadership development series will come in February with North Carolina’s NAACP President Reverend Barber featured.