U.C. to Register Voters

Students with an eye toward participation in the upcoming Cambridge City Council elections can register to vote from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. outside the Science Center and on the steps of Widener Library today and tomorrow courtesy of the Undergraduate Council.

In its first action after electing officers at Sunday's meeting, the council "overwhelmingly passed" legislation to provide the means for students to register as voters in Cambridge, according to newly-elected council President Robert M. Hyman '98-'97.

"If students are to be heard on issues that affect them, then it's important to register them to vote, and it's a shame that Harvard students don't have a greater opportunity to be part of the political process," Hyman said in an interview yesterday.

"I think [the voter registration effort] is a good example of a good way to start the council," he added.

The legislation to begin voter registration on campus was proposed by council member Brady Case '97 during Sunday's meeting. Case had previously circulated an e-mail message to other council members to gauge interest in the effort.

In his e-mail message, Case wrote that he was concerned that registration efforts by individual students on campus would be biased toward partisan interests because the students involved in these efforts were representing particular candidates in the upcoming city council elections. (Please see related story on this page.)

According to Case's e-mail message, the registration of students by the Undergraduate Council would provide a "double service by empowering them to vote and by providing an objective source of information."

Financial Aid Implications

One obstacle to the registration efforts, however, is the possibility that students who are receiving financial aid from the states of which they are currently residents could lose their scholarships by registering to vote in Cambridge and thereby changing their state residence to Massachusetts.

Associate Director of Financial Aid for the College David P. Illingworth '71 said that because "there are some students on financial aid who receive said based on their residency, it is possible in some of those cases that states would no longer be willing to give them aid if they had their residency changed to Massachusetts."

Illingworth said he did not think, however, that registering to vote would affect a large number of students. Students from Maine and Vermont, he said, would face larger obstacles than others because those states offer many of their aid packages to residents only.

Case, however, said he was told by another official at the financial aid office that even if students were to lose scholarship money from their states, the difference would be made up in the aid package offered by the University.

Much of the question about financial aid centers around each state's definition of legal residence.

Illingworth said he was unclear about what would establish a student as a Massachusetts resident.

"I'm not sure if [residency] is defined by voting or by where your home address is, or where your parents live," Illingworth said.

According to Teresa S. Neighbor, executive director of the Cambridge Election Commission, registering to vote establishes a Massachusetts residence.

"It says on the [voter registration] affidavit that by registering to vote here, you are claiming Massachusetts residence," Neighbor said.

And another woman who works at the Election Commission but asked to remain anonymous said she has dealt with many students who have run into problems with aid packages from their home states as a result of registering to vote in Massachusetts.

"The thing is, they can't vote in one city and be a resident in another city. If they get money from their state, that will get affected," she said.

"I know because a lot of students come here to try to vote and they find out they're having a lot of trouble with financial aid in their state and they have to go back and change their residence again when they get home," she said.

For students who are concerned about their state-funded aid packages, Case said the council will provide forms for registration and the students can make individual inquiries.

The council will turn in other students' registration forms to City Hall in Central Square before the Wednesday afternoon deadline.