With social media constantly at the fingertips of Millennials, college students have never before been able to have their voices heard so easily. They have also never been more aware of their surroundings than in the present day. 

As a result, college students are now more politically engaged than ever before. A study done by The Higher Education Research Institute, a group based out of UCLA, polled 141,189 people who represent the country’s first-year college students. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/college-freshmen-are-more-politically-engaged-than-they-have-been-in-decades/ ss

The survey showed that in the last two presidential elections, college students have voted at a rate at least 10 percent higher than the rest of the country. And 60 percent of college freshmen stated that they planned to vote in an election during their college years, a significant increase from past years of the survey. 

Given that more college students are liberal than conservative, an assumption confirmed by the survey, it’s no surprise that Bernie Sanders is surging in polls among young voters. These young voters have a chance to make a real change in the 2016 presidential election.

This is all great news. Getting involved in our country’s politics is a very important lesson to learn in college. There is bad news though: College campuses remain very unaware of racial issues.

Approximately one-third of all white students surveyed thought it was important to promote racial understanding. As for black students, that number was a vastly higher 64 percent. A near 30 percent difference in something as simple as racial understanding underscores the problem that plagues today’s college campuses.

The University is not excluded from this group. Students created a White Student Union on campus this fall, to oppose the Black Lives Matter protests. Clearly, more than a handful of students aren’t willing to listen to the concerns of minority races on campus. 

The survey showed that 60 percent of freshmen said it is either “very important” or “essential” to improve one’s understanding of other countries and cultures, yet ignorant groups like the White Student Union still form around us all the time. If students are truly committed to understanding other cultures, they should step back and learn about the issues of those around them.

It’s easy to dismiss protests as ineffective or not worth one’s time if the issue isn’t one that personally affects you, but this doesn’t serve anybody. You won’t become more educated about the racial difficulties your friends and classmates may be facing, and their important messages will fall on deaf ears.

Nearly three-quarters of those who took the survey indicated that helping others in difficulty is a priority, the highest result of this question since it was first asked by UCLA in 1966. But these good intentions must come with action; students need to look at what is happening right in front of us when searching for victims to help.

Paul Ceneac, an African-American freshman in Business, believes UIUC is better than most schools, but that racial ignorance on college campuses is still an issue.

“UIUC is a very diverse campus, so I think people definitely recognize that there are still racial issues out there,” Ceneac explained. “However, the disparity in (different) races’ views when it comes to the importance of promoting racial understanding is not surprising. Diversity doesn’t always signify equality.”

Ceneac encouraged all students, regardless of race, to take advantage of the diversity on this campus and get to know a culture that is different from their own.

It is a step in the right direction to have an all-time high amount of political activity in our generation. But there is still a long way to go before our generation becomes fully aware of our various cultures and the issues that reside in how minorities are disadvantaged.

College students are amongst the most influential groups in our country today, so it time to use our voice internally to spread awareness of the racial divide that exists in our country. If we can’t recognize that there is a problem, then it is an impossible task to fix it.

So go ahead and attend a Bernie Sanders rally or a Ted Cruz fundraiser. Political activism is a good thing. 

But if you believe in equality and diversity, don’t forget to also attend that racial minority protest on the quad. If you ignore issues that your fellow students are facing, then any other political statements you make mean little.

Jason is a senior in LAS.

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