Environmentalists mobilize vote

Residents of the Quadrangle received a knock on their doors by some unexpected visitors last night. Greeted with ballot registration forms and Green Voter pledges, they were the first targeted audience of a campus-wide "get-out-the-green-vote" campaign. The registration drive was launched by Campus Green Vote, an offshoot of the Green Corps, a grassroots environmental organization. As part of Youth Vote '94, a partnership of 14 youth organizations including the National Abortion Rights Action League and Rock the Vote, Campus Green Vote aims at mobilizing and registering voters between the ages of 18 to 24. The group also asks students to sign a Green Voter pledge, a promise made by the voter to consider environmental issues when casting a ballot. About 30 students met in the Rooftop Lounge of High Rise East at 6:45 p.m. yesterday before leaving to canvas the Quad. The group hopes to visit other dormitories depending on the success of their initial efforts. "The truth is that the Congress we're now facing is the most hostile towards the environment since the first Earth Day," said Hedy Aronson, Campus Green Vote organizer. "The goal of the whole campaign is to get people involved and take the environment into consideration when voting." The campus was first targeted by Colin Yost, a 1992 University graduate, who served as the Campus Green Vote organizer for the Philadelphia area. In its third year, the campaign has targeted door-to-door efforts and sign-up tables on Locust Walk to recruit new voters. College junior Christina Gaoitsky and Engineering junior Terri Saunders travelled to the rooms of potential first-time voters, only to meet with mixed results. College and Nursing junior Rebecka Mowdy, a former Green Corps intern, changed her address on the voter registration card and readily signed the pledge. "It's an effective way of confronting people," she said. "It's better than slipping papers under the door. Those I throw away, this I listen [to]." But, next door, Gus Kefalopoulos, a College freshman, was not politically motivated by Campus Green Vote's efforts. Kefalopoulos, who does not plan to register, said he would only vote if he was "real pissed off at something." "There's nothing I feel strongly about." The last time he voted was in his high school election, he added. Nationwide, Campus Green Vote registered over 126,000 voters for the 1992 election. The group aims to register 4,000 University voters up until the Oct. 11 primary, Aronson said.