2008 Woodie Awards
SGA dormstorms for voter registrations
Brady Holt
Issue date: 10/4/07 Section: News
The SGA wants you!
And if you live in the dorms, you've probably heard about it this week as the Student Government Association's "dormstormers" make their way through dorms in a "last final push" toward their goal of registering 1,000 students for the upcoming College Park election.
"I'm going to personally try and hit all of them," said SGA President Andrew Friedson, as he made his way through Denton Hall in a baseball cap, T-shirt and flip-flops Tuesday night.
The "dormstorming" campaign was organized by SGA Director of Governmental Affairs Matt Stern and City Council Liaison Danielle Kogut, Friedson said.
Stern wrote in an e-mail that, as of Tuesday night, SGA had registered 850 students this semester, through the campaign and other means. Seven volunteers signed up 70 students in an hour and a half at Elkton Hall Tuesday night, which Stern said was "consistent with most of our dormstorming efforts - very successful."Neither the mayor's office nor any city district with a large student population is up for grabs this year, and no student candidate has come forward to run. But SGA leaders are undeterred.
"The more students we can get to vote, the better a chance we have of influencing every member of the council on every issue," Friedson said. "Voter turnout increases student political capital."
In the dorms, volunteers point out that the city council controls most off-campus student housing, and has made decisions recently about noise and parking restrictions that they argue have hurt students.
This semester the council passed an ordinance expanding noise restrictions to cover parties playing the bass too loud and introduced permit parking in the area of the Knox Box apartments.
The "dormstorming," however, is fraught with obstacles.
When none of the volunteers are residents at the hall they intend to work in, the group must tailgate their way into the lobby and then into an elevator. Tuesday night's effort was almost thwarted when an Elkton elevator shut its doors, refusing to carry its load, which included a dorm resident, seven SGA volunteers and a Diamondback reporter and photographer accompanying them. (It eventually released the group to take the stairs).
And if you live in the dorms, you've probably heard about it this week as the Student Government Association's "dormstormers" make their way through dorms in a "last final push" toward their goal of registering 1,000 students for the upcoming College Park election.
"I'm going to personally try and hit all of them," said SGA President Andrew Friedson, as he made his way through Denton Hall in a baseball cap, T-shirt and flip-flops Tuesday night.
The "dormstorming" campaign was organized by SGA Director of Governmental Affairs Matt Stern and City Council Liaison Danielle Kogut, Friedson said.
Stern wrote in an e-mail that, as of Tuesday night, SGA had registered 850 students this semester, through the campaign and other means. Seven volunteers signed up 70 students in an hour and a half at Elkton Hall Tuesday night, which Stern said was "consistent with most of our dormstorming efforts - very successful."Neither the mayor's office nor any city district with a large student population is up for grabs this year, and no student candidate has come forward to run. But SGA leaders are undeterred.
"The more students we can get to vote, the better a chance we have of influencing every member of the council on every issue," Friedson said. "Voter turnout increases student political capital."
In the dorms, volunteers point out that the city council controls most off-campus student housing, and has made decisions recently about noise and parking restrictions that they argue have hurt students.
This semester the council passed an ordinance expanding noise restrictions to cover parties playing the bass too loud and introduced permit parking in the area of the Knox Box apartments.
The "dormstorming," however, is fraught with obstacles.
When none of the volunteers are residents at the hall they intend to work in, the group must tailgate their way into the lobby and then into an elevator. Tuesday night's effort was almost thwarted when an Elkton elevator shut its doors, refusing to carry its load, which included a dorm resident, seven SGA volunteers and a Diamondback reporter and photographer accompanying them. (It eventually released the group to take the stairs).
Submit a letter to the editor or post a comment below.
Be the first to comment on this story