Wharton students use class project to address civic awareness, voting

With voter turnout at consistent lows and political participation in a state of decline, a group of students has undertaken a seemingly impossible task -- registering Penn students to vote.

The group of Wharton freshmen, who have nicknamed themselves the "dormstormers," is attempting to increase civic awareness and voter turnout for their Management 100 class project. They have tried to contact every student living in the Quadrangle with information about how to vote and where to learn about the candidates.

The project "has two main focuses," group member Rachel Schiffman said. "The first focus we just finished -- to get the students in the Quad registered to vote."

"The second part is to increase civic awareness," she added.

The group has knocked on every door in the Quad and has stood at the Quad gates at different times over the course of a week with voter registration forms. The students also set up drop boxes in the Quad and Huntsman Hall to collect the forms, which they delivered to City Hall free of charge for students.

Yesterday was the last day for residents of Philadelphia to register to vote in the Nov. 4 election. The group collected a total of 47 registration forms, and yesterday delivered the last 16 to City Hall.

The other 31 forms were collected last Wednesday when the group worked in conjunction with Penn Rock the Vote at a forum featuring the two current candidates for mayor -- incumbent Democrat John Street and his Republican challenger Sam Katz.

Though 16 voter registrations may not seem like much, Schiffman noted that the dormstormers left registration forms with many more students, and those students were free to mail them in on their own.

"Even if we touched on a small group, it was still better than having touched on nothing," she said.

The group found many who had not thought about voting in Philadelphia and, not surprisingly, had questions about the process.

Some students who wondered how this would affect their voting status back home learned that they can register in two or more places, but can only vote in one.

Others questioned how registering in Philadelphia would affect them in terms of the city's wage tax, and discovered that individuals registered to vote in the city are subject to the city's current 4.5 percent wage tax.

The group has also set up an e-mail address that students can contact with questions about the upcoming election.

College freshman Kristin Nwobu was one of the students contacted by the dormstormers, but was already registered in her home state of New Jersey.

"I remember them coming, but I already registered over the summer," she said. She did say that she eventually planned to register in Philadelphia.

Now that the current voter registration period is over, the dormstormers are concentrating on hosting events and forums to talk about political ideas and the issues currently facing the city. They hope to bring in representatives from the campaigns of individuals running for public office or members of the College Democrats and College Republicans.

"We're going to have a party the night before the election to increase interest on campus," group member and Wharton freshman Alexandra Infeld said.

The group's teaching assistant, Wharton junior Rachel Grossman, said that she has witnessed the group working hard so far, and continuing to push for success.

"So far from what I've seen, they're doing really great things," Grossman said. "They immediately got started on [the project], and they're so excited and so enthusiastic."

We are trying to register "as many voters as we can get, and have good turnout at events that we're going be having," Infeld said.

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