OUR VIEW: We urge students to sign the class petition supporting net neutrality.

In assistant professor of management Niyati Kataria’s special topics class, there is a student group tasked with starting a social movement concerning net neutrality. The student group so far has garnered more than 300 signatures on the petition and will present their petition to Stephen Santellana, mayor of Wichita Falls, hoping to get his support of net neutrality on April 10.

Students should sign the petition because it is their chance to make tangible change in the community. Our democracy enables ordinary citizens to foster growth and change in their society. Petitioning to have our mayor support the causes we support is an exercise of our rights.

Eliminating net neutrality has a drastically negative effect. Internet Service Providers will have the ability to slow down service to sights and charge its customers more money to go on certain sites. If you cherish your ability to go on sites such as Netflix with no additional cost, sign the petition to support policies against these practices.

From a solely capitalist perspective, ISPs in a free and competitive market should be able to do what they want with their company; however, we believe it is the role of the government to prohibit companies from barring its companies access to information.

For students and those who say they cannot make a difference in our democracy, we urge you to sign the petition. We have the ability to act toward effecting change in your society. Be on the right side of history and defend net neutrality.