Voter registration falls short

More than one third of the nation's colleges give themselves a C or worse when it comes to judging their effectiveness at registering students to vote, according to a study released by Harvard University's Institute of Politics and The Chronicle for Higher Education.\nThat number falls drastically short of their legal obligations spelled out in the 1998 Higher Education Act, which requires any university receiving federal funds to request sufficient voter registration forms for its entire campus four months before registration deadlines.\nApproximately 815 college and university presidents were e-mailed the survey and asked to grade themselves on their campus' effectiveness at registering young voters; only 249 schools responded to the survey, and they were allowed to respond anonymously if they so chose. \nThirty-seven percent of respondents gave themselves a C or worse. Only 17 percent of colleges and universities report to be in "strict" compliance with the HEA, but when the definition is loosened to whether schools are in compliance with the "spirit" of the law, the numbers improve to nearly two in three.\nIU officials did not comment on whether the University was one of those that responded to Harvard's survey or, if so, what grade they gave themselves.\nBut Damon Sims, vice chancellor for student affairs and associate dean of students, said while he was not aware whether or not the University responded to the survey, he said he thought he'd give the campus a fairly high grade for its work. \nSims said IU has opened its doors to voter registration and created the Civics Engagement Committee that Sims chaired, which has organized a voter registration blitz on campus this week by coordinating the efforts of a number of student groups.\n"Students, faculty and staff have been involved in the beginning," Sims said. "What we've managed to do electively would have managed to give us a pretty good grade. Had the staff not been willing, the institution might not have made such a grade in my opinion."\nTerry Hartle, senior vice president for the American Council on Education, told the Associated Press that responses might have been different had people other than colleges' presidents been surveyed and had the survey not been taken place in August, when most college presidents are not at their school.\nSims said IU has been providing support through the student affairs office in keeping with federal law mandate.\nThe IU College Republicans and Democrats, the Black Student Union, the Graduate and Professional Student Organization and the IU Student Association were among the groups to participate in this week's voter registration blitz, Sims said.\n"We are definitely highly involved in getting students' voices out there," senior IUSA President Tyson Chastain said. "We were at the last home football game and had registration forms to fill out in the student tail-gating area."\nPurdue University was one of five schools specifically singled out in the Harvard study for heralding a successful outreach program and "extremely creative methods" of encouraging students to vote. \nThe study praised Purdue's inclusion of a section on voter registration with fee statements mailed to every student. Their freshman orientation includes two components on voter registration, and voter registration forms are available to all students at Purdue's Office of the Registrar's Web site.\n"We put a lot of effort into voter awareness week, and we're pretty proud of our efforts," Purdue senior and student body vice president Aaron Schnur said. "This is a very important election, as are all elections, and Purdue thinks it's very important to vote."\nSchnur said all this week students affiliated with Purdue student government and Union Board had volunteered at different high-traffic spots on their campus to register students. A candidate meet-and-greet has also been scheduled, Schnur said, with invitations sent out to gubernatorial candidates Mitch Daniels and Gov. Joe Kernan. \nMuch of Purdue's success can be attributed to the students' civic devotion, Schnur said.\n"A lot of it is being willing to put in the time," Schnur said. "Successful voter registration drives sometimes don't get that many people. You have to be out at every event, be present on campus and be in front of them. A lot of times students won't go out of their way to vote."\nThe survey did express some positive results. Political activity abounds on America's college campuses, the survey reported, with more than eight in 10 schools hosting political speakers on campus last semester. More than seven in 10 held voter registration drives, and protests or rallies took place on more than one-third of the campuses.\nChastain said he feels optimistic about the participation of young people in this year's election.\n"Personally, I think we're going to see an election that the young population is going to have a high turn-out," Chastain said. "Partly because of all the media press going on with Kerry and Bush, but also because the young population is starting to realize how they get their voice heard."\n-- Contact senior writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.