In the comments I made last time I stated that I agree with most of your reasoning - I just don't agree on campus students have "no reason" to vote. The diamondback wrote an editorial against the university last year when they were considering ending payment of the A & A tax to the city because students on campus or off have a vested interest in not seeing the city which host their university go into the gutter. But if you need a list of some reasons on campus students might have an interest in voting:

1. On campus students do actually leave campus at times. If you leave campus to come to a downtown bar or restaraunt or even have to walk from campus to the CP metro - you probably care about public safety in this city and therefore have a reason to care what stances elected officials in the city take on public safety issues, and you have a reason to vote. Just this year we had a divided vote on security cameras.

2. Very few on campus students live on campus all four years. Even if you're on campus now: The deicisions made today impacting off campus living could impact you tomorrow. From supporting or opposing new student developments in the city to supporting or opposing regulations on rental units.

3. The argument that living on campus means you should have no interest in seeing more unique restaraunts or shops in College Park, or any interest in seeing route 1 improved, or any interest in how this city looks or the city's reputation is an odd argument to make.

The fact is the University of Maryland is part of the City of College Park. Greenbelt and Hyattsville are not. Telling on campus students they don't have a right or reason to vote even though they live in the city seems wrong morally and highly questionably legally. How much one pays in taxes has never been and should never be a baseline on voting rights for citizens.

Marcus,
I never said that on-campus students don't have the right to vote. They do and they will.
But they will never exercise it.
By claiming to protect a right the on-campus students will not exercise, the City is giving about three times as much power to a homeowner in Berwyn as to a homeowner in North College Park.
Historically, a few homeowners in College Park Woods have been similarly privileged under this system.
Time for a change.
Mark

Its really a blow not only to students and residents, but also the well being of our town, when we focus on ways we can discourage citizen participation in government, especially the youth. The fact is that College Park is a city, and within that city is a University that generates local tourism, investment, commercial development and use of public services.

To suggest that students on-campus don't have a say in College Park elections is not only ludicrous but also irresponsible. To chastise students for 1) not paying taxes like everyone else and 2) for living on campus is only adding fuel to a fire of poor public attitudes that a number of citizens, students and officials are working hard to fix. The University population hardly operates in a vacuum, and as much as I hate to admit it, those students also make up for the odd University tax system through parking fines, speeding tickets, buying from local businesses, rent payment, etc.

You are right Mr. Shroder in that it is time for change. Studies within the community of City Planning have shown that neighborhoods can only benefit from collaboration and partnership. The unwarranted and unjustified generalization of students - particularly as booze crazed degenerates - only distracts from civic engagement AND opportunities to put pressure on the real villains of our little town: corporate chains, lack of state funding, loss of entrepreneurial interest, and lack of a true city center.

Mr. Zaccaria: My daughter graduated from UMCP a year ago. She lived for for years in dorms and in Courtyards. She is not a "booze crazed degenerate." (I never used those words. Take responsibility for your language.) She is seriously intent on a career in science. She is not particularly serious about the development of or public services in College Park. She voted once in a City election because her father was a former Council member. The vast majority of on-campus students will not vote because they do not pay taxes to the City and do not receive services from the City. Not this year, not in two years, not ever.

I don't think this is an issue the city can fix as long as College Park has a district system. As far as I know, equal population districts are mandated by federal voting rights law. I suppose CP could 'fix' this with come crazy gerrymandering scheme, but I doubt it.

In Greenbelt (an entirely at-large council), we recently talked about moving to a district system in response to an ACLU challenge. If we had implemented this in the last election, we would have had one rep voted in with 282 votes, and one rep voted in with 4000(!) votes. The districts would have had roughly the same number of voters, but one population votes in most elections, and the other mostly votes only during national elections.

Completely at-large elections have their own problems, especially plurality voting (the standard around here), which often locks out minority views (i.e., the students). There are proportional voting schemes that go a long towards finding the best of both worlds.

Redistrict centered on the campus. Allocate slices of campus to each district so the non-voters are allocated evenly. Easy peasy!