IUSA busing students to polls

The IU Student Association will help registered students get to the polls on Election Day. IUSA will provide a van from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Students can call the IUSA office at 855-4872 and arrange for the van to pick them up from wherever they are, on or off-campus. The van will have posters with information of the three presidential candidates in Indiana for students to read before they get to their election polling site.\nThe student government is interested in the issues students are concerned about rather than the actual candidates, said senior and IUSA President Tyson Chastain.\n"We will be having representatives from our legislative relations office at the polls with clipboards and surveys, asking students what issues they are voting on," he said. "We will then send these surveys to the governor's office, to show what students want."\nAnother issue IUSA will debate is the availability of "free speech" zones on campus for student organizations to gather and communicate with the student body. \nCurrently, student organizations can use Dunn Meadow and the space in front of the Sample Gates to voice their opinions.\nTonight's IUSA Congress meeting will include a vote on a resolution to create a committee that will explore and recommend to the administration where else student organizations could assemble on campus.\nStudents are unable to hear the messages communicated from the various student groups on campus because they are not in locations where there is a heavy concentration of students, said senior and IUSA Vice President Scott Norman.\n"We want to give groups the option of being able to be in areas where there are students to hear their messages," Norman said. \nChastain made the point that political candidates who made the journey to IU were given the exception of speaking in areas that are off-limits to student groups such as the Arboretum and Dunn's Woods.\n"Mitch Daniels came here to speak, but the groups that represent his issues are not allowed to meet in those areas," he said. "This takes away from student representation."\nStudent groups must register their organization with the office before applying to use space on campus, according to the student activities office Web site, www.indiana.edu/~sao/faq.htm. Groups requesting outdoor space must fill out an application and must do so seven days in advance of their scheduled function. \nNorman said outdoor space designations should be dependent on the trend of students traveling to a particular location on campus.\n"(Spaces) where students typically travel, such as the Arboretum, should be used to base where student groups should meet," he said.\n-- Contact staff writer Eric Tash at etash@indiana.edu.