Members of student government approved a resolution Wednesday that would defy a University of Wisconsin-Madison housing policy by authorizing student voter registration inside university residence halls, pending Chancellor David Ward’s approval.
Current housing policy bans all forms of canvassing and soliciting, but this legislation aims to create an exception to the policy from Oct. 7 to 12.
If approved by Ward, the Madison Student Vote Coalition, a nonpartisan group of students working to register voters and encourage student participation in the election, would be permitted to go door-to-door in residence halls.
Associated Students of Madison Student Council Chair Andrew Bulovsky said this approach would benefit students given the current political environment.
“Civic engagement is a serious problem in the United States, especially with declining voter turnout,” Bulovsky said. “We want as many students registered as possible and engaged in the political process.”
Director of University Housing Paul Evans said the intention of the policy is to protect students from an invasion of privacy, not to prevent registration.
“The idea is that the room is really like your bedroom, it isn’t like an apartment,” Evans said. “The reason we do not allow outside solicitation is we do not believe that someone should be … inside your home, which is what we think of the hallway as being.”
Evans said while the university is willing to explore other options for increased registration, ASM does not have the jurisdiction to overstep university housing policy in this manner.
Also in the meeting, council received a presentation on the Human Resources redesign, which aims to improve university employee recruitment and retainment.
Members discussed concerns over the possible impact on university staff and teaching assistants as well as the lack of specifics in the document, and may vote to suggest changes to the plan in a future meeting.
