With the legislature’s redistricting session ending, there is much discussion about whether redrawn voting maps properly represent Louisiana’s communities. This discussion is far from over, but legislators playing politics ignored an opportunity to unify one particular community: LSU.
The majority of LSU rests within two voting precincts: 1-46 and 1-44. While students, faculty and the average person may consider the university’s campus as one distinct area in Baton Rouge, legislative maps do not.
If you’re registered to vote at LSU, your relation to Highland Road determines your legislators. Seriously. If a student lives east of Highland Road, they vote in a different precinct and in different state house and state senate elections than a student living west of Highland Road.
Altogether, four legislators represent university residents: two state representatives—Democrat Larry Selders and Republican Scott McKnight—and two state senators—Democrat Cleo Fields and Republican Franklin Foil.
“LSU is a community of interest—we’re a community of students,” Mia LeJeune, president of Geaux Vote, said. “We have a lot of the same values, same demographics, so having us in one group [would be] more fair, more accurate and more reflective of the community.”
Dividing the university between legislative districts gives legislators political victories at the expense of student engagement and voting power, especially from those who live on campus. More legislators can claim that they “represent LSU” even though the students those same legislators claim to represent become dissatisfied or disillusioned.
“Having to give one group of students two separate directions gets confusing,” LeJeune said. “It can lead to a lot of people feeling that they’re not being treated as favorably or as importantly.”
Even larger issues still are holding legislators accountable and ensuring that they actually represent student interests.
Imagine if, at the regular session next month, one legislator representing half of campus amends capital outlay to increase the university’s budget, but the legislator representing the other half votes against it. Would such a split accurately represent the feelings of the university’s voters or of someone’s commitment to the university’s interests?
Considering the funding issues the university faced in the past and continues to face today, hypothetical scenarios like these explain why unifying the district provides a critical tool where “students know who they need to hold accountable if, and when, the time comes,” LeJeune said.
Unfortunately, the odds of redrawn maps eliminating the university’s division are slim, so it may be 10 years before students have another chance to improve their representation. 
Drake Brignac is a 21-year-old political communication and political science senior from Baton Rouge.