City dedicates month to student civic engagement

City Council dedicated the month of September to engaging local students in the political… City Council dedicated the month of September to engaging local students in the political process before their meeting yesterday morning in the City-County Building, Downtown. The Council declared this month Student Civic Engagement Month.

Together with Pitt’s Student Government Board and the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, city officials said they hope Student Civic Engagement Month will increase voter turnout in November’s midterm elections.

Pitt’s student governments, along with 13 other universities in the city, will participate in the effort by circulating voter registration forms in dormitories in an attempt to make registering a convenient and easy task.

At Pitt, the official kickoff for voter registration will be held at the beginning of the bonfire and pep rally on the Cathedral lawn at 8:30 p.m. Thursday. SGB and GPSA will set up tables for students to register to vote.

Additional tabling will occur daily in Towers Lobby as well as in front of the William Pitt Union throughout September.

Pitt students gathered Downtown seemed optimistic about the new initiative’s goal of bringing more voters to the polls in Oakland and throughout the city.

“By making registration available in so many different places, it is almost impossible not to get ourselves involved in the political process,” said Madeline Beyer, a sophomore communications major.

Later this month, SGB and GPSA hope to hold a number of other political events, including a potential gubernatorial debate as well as a candidate forum in collaboration with the Pitt College Dems and Republicans.

SGB will set up a booth on Election Day, Nov. 2, to answer student questions about where, when and how to vote.

“Traditionally, students are not seen as a voting population, but if we do not vote our voices will not be heard,” GPSA president Nila Devanath said.

Patrick Dowd, representative council of District 7, spoke at the mid-morning council meeting. He too thought it was important for students to play an active role in the political process — especially in a city where the student population exceeds 80,000 and grows all the time.

“We want to welcome students. We want to make sure they are engaged so that they can contribute to the wider good of the county,” Dowd said.

Council President Darlene Harris said the collaboration around Student Civic Engagement Month marks one of the first times City Council has interacted with student leaders and administration since last year’s controversial “Fair Share Tax.” The tax would have levied a 1-percent tuition tax on local students but was tabled after public outcry.

Pitt and several other local universities eventually agreed to increase public support of the city, but details about the agreement were not released.

To further connect the city government to local universities, SGB and GPSA have helped form the new Pittsburgh Student Government Council to serve as an intermediary between students, council and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. The council consists of 10 student leaders from Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and Carlow, among other schools.

Pitt’s goal, explained Devanath, is to register 1,000 voters before the Oct. 4 deadline.

“This month is a good time to get voters registered, as students are just arriving on campus and have the opportunity to get involved as soon as possible,” said Stephanie Hoogendoorn, a GPSA adviser.

That feat should not be impossible, Devanath said, as Pitt is home to close to 30,000 graduate and undergraduate students.