WAC implements voter awareness initiative

Sports organizations nationwide have taken steps to support and encourage civic engagement from its athletes and fans. The Western Athletic Conference followed suit on Sept. 8, announcing the implementation of its new voter awareness program, WAC Votes. 

“WAC Votes aims to educate student-athletes on the importance of voting and exercising their civic responsibility leading up to, on, and beyond Election Day. This initiative will also provide student-athletes with non-partisan resources to promote voter awareness, access to education regarding state-by-state voter opportunities,” the WAC said in a news release Sept. 8. 

Along with the WAC Votes initiative, the conference agreed to designate Nov. 3, Election Day, as a required off day for all student-athletes in the conference, giving them the chance to go out and exercise their right to vote. 

The creation of the program comes after discussions held by the WAC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which consists of two student-athletes from each of the nine teams in the conference. The decision on the program was unanimous as athletic directors from each team in the conference voted yes to its implementation. 

“It’s super encouraging to see [the WAC] support our ideas which I think just makes us more encouraged to try and do more,” said Rachel Yu of the UTRGV Women’s Golf Team, vice president of the WAC Student Athlete Advisory Committee and president of the UTRGV  Student Athlete Advisory Committee. “That’s the biggest thing. Even among UTRGV, the whole entirety of WAC Votes is to allow people a chance and an opportunity to become educated, to have their voice be heard. This is just that middle part to allow that to happen. It just shows that they have our back 100%.” 

Yu knew going into the summer that with this being an election year, implementing a program of this nature was a priority. 

“This was brought up pretty much during the summer during our WAC SAAC summer calls,” Yu said. “We understood that this year with a lot of the social injustices and those events going on in the summer and with this also being an election year, there was just a lot of stuff going on. We just knew that we had a lot to do this summer.” 

While the creation of WAC Votes is a big step for the conference, Yu believes this is only the beginning. 

“In terms of doing more, we are doing an initiative right now for this year and we’re going to be making an initiative and a recommendation for all the following years,” she said. “I think it’s just going to be kind of a chain effect, starting at a national level and then let’s see if we can get more people involved on their regional level in their local elections.” 

WAC Votes serves as being a voice of change for athletes, coaches, staff and fans. The 2020 election is arguably one of the most consequential elections in our country’s history, empowering people to perform their civil responsibility. 

“I personally have learned a lot from the steps that I’ve been taking with this initiative. It’s very encouraging,” said Jamal Gaines, UTRGV men’s basketball player and vice president of UTRGV SAAC. “It’s great to learn that we can actually make a change and we actually have a route that we can take to be effective.” 

Growing up, Gaines remembers seeing NBA professional LeBron James using his platform as a way to be vocal about ongoing issues. Now, the conversation continues in the locker room with his teammates and his coach. 

“[UTRGV Head Basketball] Coach [Lew] Hill does an amazing job. He is always showing us videos and always gives us books to read to make sure we stay up to date and continue to learn,” Gaines said. “He’s made it a point that everybody is registered to vote this year and hammering in that we could use our platform and taking necessary steps to make everything better.” 

Gaines anticipates that WAC’s and UTRGV SAAC’s next step with this initiative is to emphasize the importance of voting in every election. To further assist in achieving the goals for WAC Votes, UTRGV’s athletic program ensures that academic advisers, coaches and staff communicate with the athletes every single day. The athletic program also plans to reach out to their fans via social media. 

“We are going to start implementing voter tips and voter information on our social media pages,” said Julia Perez, coordinator for Student Development and administrative representative for the WAC SAAC. “From now on, every Wednesday, we’re going to post a new tip or new information.” 

These community outreach posts will incorporate mail-in ballot information, registration dates and deadlines, and early voting and Election Day schedules to keep people informed, as Nov. 3 approaches.  

For additional resources on voting, students can visit https://wacsports.com/wacvotes.  

 *Ivan Palacios with The Rider contributed to this story.