This post was updated Oct. 31 at 7:21 p.m.

Election Day is rapidly approaching. Now is the time for us to cast our votes and select our country’s next wave of leaders.

It is critical to reflect on our engagement with the political system. Especially for us young voters, there is room for improvement.

On North Campus – home to UCLA’s social sciences and humanities – the upcoming general election is at the forefront. Discourse on candidate platforms, polling and issue advocacy echoes across discussion sections and mini-debates between friends at Jimmy’s Coffeehouse.

“A core part of our education is to study current politics,” said third-year political science student LuLu Sigouin.

She emphasized that many North Campus students keep up with current events as an intrinsic part of their curricula.

For many North Campus students, voting in the general election is not a matter of if, but when.

In contrast, on South Campus – where many of UCLA’s STEM departments reside – discussions about the 2024 election are less prevalent. For many South Campus majors engaging in fields such as physics, biology and mathematics, the political system may seem more distant.

“I feel like it’s (political engagement is) not as encouraged,” said third-year physiological science student Alina Garmash.

Garmash added that on South Campus, the political scene may be approached as something sad.

“There’s also a lot of people who are in the mindset where they’re too wrapped up in their studies to care, or it doesn’t affect them, so they don’t need to think about it,” said Hunter Janssen, a third-year mechanical engineering student.

Considering divergences in both the curricula and attitudes of North and South Campus students, a clear line can be drawn between how students in both realms approach engagement with politics. While it is a given that many North Campus students are planning to vote in the upcoming general election, it might be hard to say the same for their South Campus counterparts.

“A lot of my friends are STEM majors, and not a lot of them are voting – very few of them, honestly,” said Jacky Qin, a second-year physiological science student.

While discussions of immigration, wars abroad and civil rights seem integral to a North Campus education and quite distant from South Campus curricula, every single political issue has the potential to impact our lives, irrespective of what we choose to study.

“There’s a lot that connects politically to STEM, like research money or allocations within the federal government,” Janssen said.

Studying systems of government may not be the focus of UCLA’s South Campus students, but the reality is that policy does indeed influence critical facets of STEM such aa medicine, technological advancement, and even how science and math are taught in public classrooms.

No student at UCLA – North or South – is isolated from the effects of the approaching political moment. It is for this reason that we must all show up for our democracy and vote in this general election.

Yes, this might mean putting in extra work to research candidate positions and headlines, but it is the least that can be done to engage in our governmental systems.

Putting aside differences in majors and proximity to politics in our daily lives, we as critical thinkers must voice our needs and perspectives through diligent civic engagement. There is no better place to start than in the presidential election approaching in only a few days.