Sept. 25 is National Voter Registration Day (https://nationalvoterregistrationday.org/).

Because it’s their future, college students have the most to gain from voting. And yet, a shockingly small percentage of college students register and vote. Self-centered apathy is often given as a reason, but that is not it. Students tend not to vote because they have lost faith in the process.

When they see political and business leaders and sports and entertainment figures lie, cheat, and steal they lose faith in the social norms that hold the country together, including voting.

Also, in the past 10 years, in some states legislators have created barriers, hassles, costs, and confusing rules to keep students away from the polls.

Most college students care a lot about affordable health care, immigration reform, student loans, poverty and inequality, institutional racism, and many other issues.

Having spent my entire adult life among college students, first as a student and then a professor, I can attest that when students raise their voices including voting good things happen.

The Parkland high school students give us evidence of that.

So here’s your homework: Register to vote online and apply for a mail-in-ballot at https://registertovote.ca.gov/.