Colleges and universities are required since 1998 by the Higher
Education Act (if they get federal funds) to make ća good faith effort
to distribute a mail voter registration formä to each student, and to
ćmake such forms widely available to students at the institution.ä
(Unless in one of the seven States with no voter registration of
election-day registration.) How well has that requirement been met?
A 9/2004 survey by Harvardās Kennedy School and The Chronicle of
Higher Ed, found that only 17% of 249 institutions that responded
(another 566, including Georgetown, didnāt respond) met the requirements
fully. While most respondents had some program in place, such minor
places as Brown and Duke didnāt respond · and give some reason to doubt
they even knew of the requirements, since immediately after the study
was front-paged by The Chronicle, the Presidents at
Brown and Duke sent out campus-wide announcements on the importance of
registering to vote.
How about students and faculty contact their own institution öand
contact also people at other places who share their concerns÷to make
sure our places are doing as they're supposed to · and as we so need?
For anyone interested, I'll send excerpts from the study (four+
pages, including examples of successful programs at Purdue, U. New
Hampshire, and San Francisco State U.) and from The Chronicle article.
Thanx again for yr time, roy
--
Roy A. Schotland
Professor
Georgetown U. Law Ctr.
600 New Jersey Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001
phone 202/662-9098
fax 662-9680 or -9444