Registration drive is creative, effective

Microsoft’s Xbox video game console is stacked. It comes complete with an Ethernet port, a 733… Microsoft’s Xbox video game console is stacked. It comes complete with an Ethernet port, a 733 MHz processor, an internal hard drive, a front-loading DVD tray, amazing graphics and compatibility with a wide array of exciting new games. But it may be some time before mankind can truly understand the real power of this machine. This week, it surpassed even the wildest expectations by doing the impossible – the Xbox got college students registered to vote.

As part of an ongoing effort to move students to register, the Resident Student Association tempted potential voters with a brand new Xbox. By filling out the appropriate forms, newly registered party members became eligible for the prize.

Skeptics will point out how sad this situation is – apathetic students won’t register until they are offered some kind of reward. In this case, that reward comes in the form of a game console, something that may just lead the winner to remain planted in front of the television until a newer, flashier system is released.

But the sad truth is that this step is necessary. Every year decisions are made that affect students directly – tuition increases in particular. Steps are taken by the legislature that may make life harder for students, yet they will not speak up in their own defense. If an Xbox bribe can change all that, it should.

Of course, registering to vote is not the same as actually voting. It is entirely possible that a thousand students will sign up this week, watch the Xbox go to someone else and spend Nov. 5 at that guy’s house playing Halo.

But even if no one who registers this week actually votes, Student Government Board will take their names to Harrisburg and the state legislature will suddenly be forced to take Pitt students more seriously. If local representatives want to get re-elected, they will have to take the campaign trail through Oakland and listen to its residents.

This is an interesting step by RSA, and it will culminate in November with the Get Out the Vote campaign to get more and more students serious about casting a ballot.

It doesn’t say much for students that a prize is necessary to make them vote. But RSA is deserving of admiration for finding a creative way to get them registered. The push for student voters is stubborn and determined this fall, and that is reassuring. Now they just need a way to ensure that those who registered actually vote. Pitt might be just one GameCube away from lower tuition in 2003.