Campus may serve as polling site

By Nicole Laprade

Students living on campus next year may have the chance to vote in the upcoming presidential election in Benson Parlors, if political science professor Elsa Chen and various student organizations are successful in turning the university into its own voting precinct.

Five-hundred on-campus registered voters are needed by Aug. 6 in order to satisfy voter registration requirements and bring the polls to Santa Clara in November. If successful however, it wouldn't allow students living off campus the same opportunity.

Chen has teamed up with Associated Students President Annie Selak and Vice President Amy Chan, along with Jeanne Rosenberger, dean for student life, and the Political Science Student Association to make on-campus voting a prospect.

After talking to students in her Introduction to American Politics class, Chen discovered that many students don't vote because they consider the process inconvenient.

"The first step is to make it easier," she said. "And what could be easier than having it right in the middle of campus?"

Currently, the closest polling location for students is the fire station on Alviso Street. The new polls would either be in the Benson Parlors or the Arts and Sciences Building and would exclusively serve on-campus residents.

Chen and others anticipate that with the presence of a polling place on-campus there will be increased political awareness and participation by all Santa Clara students.

"I think that our students do care about a lot of things," Chen said. "They care about social justice. They care about the community. They're very active in volunteering â€" more so than maybe a lot of other colleges these days."

Chen continued, "I think that with the presidential election and the Iraq war and other major events happening now, more students are realizing how important political things are."

AS Vice President Chan hopes that this project will enable many first-time out-of-state voters to register on campus, avoid the hassle of absentee voting and become more involved in the Santa Clara community.

"I think that if (Santa Clara students) want to be taken seriously by the public and by the city council when it comes to city issues, we really need to vote," Selak said. "We need to make our voices heard."

Of the nearly 2000 on-campus residents, only 88 are currently are registered to vote. But the committee is optimistic that they will be able to reach the 500 registered voter requirement by their deadline.

According to Rosenberger, the low number of on-campus residents registered to vote can be attributed to the fact that the registrar's computer system rejects the Santa Clara P.O. box addresses because they are not "residence addresses."

Building names and residence hall room numbers meets registration address purposes, but the university has typically held back such information in order to protect the safety and privacy of its students.

Currently, Santa Clara is working with the registrar's office to ensure that students will not be forced to disclose certain information they want to keep private.

Those involved with the project are optimistic about getting the required number of people registered, but Rodriguez hopes that those who register also follow through and vote.

"The main goal is to get students more interested in government, whether they register here or somewhere else," she said.

Rodriguez thinks that having a polling place on campus will raise civic awareness.

"I think it seems like our students don't care and that they are apathetic, when really they don't know how to get involved or how easy it is to find out what's going on in the community and the country. This will help foster that," she said.

Thursday, staff members from the Registrar of Voter's Office will demonstrate the new touch-screen voting machine and help students register people to vote by Benson's fountain between noon and 3 p.m.

û Contact Nicole Laprade at (408) 554-4546 or nlaprade@scu.edu.