By Colin Young
Despite a general university ban on students knocking on residence hall doors for promotion, Northeastern officials recently made an exception to allow the Northeastern University College Democrats to push voter registration, interim university spokesperson Jim Chiavelli said in a statement to The News.
Chiavelli said the university allows the voter registration drive because members of the senior administration said it fits with President Joseph Aoun’s desire to have students register to vote.
“It’s a way to engage [students] with the community and the world,” Chiavelli said.
Student organizations like the Husky Energy Action Team (HEAT), the Student Government Association (SGA), the NU Democrats and the Northeastern University College Republicans have all dorm stormed for previous events. HEAT dorm stormed in March for its “Do It In the Dark” event. SGA has used promotional dorm storms for presidential elections.
“Door to door solicitations – that is, asking residents to do or pay for something – in all residence halls are prohibited,” Chiavelli said in the statement. He later added that some groups, including HEAT, have appealed and received special permission to dorm storm.
Dominique McCadden, co-executive director of HEAT, said the group had no trouble obtaining permission to dorm storm for “Do It In the Dark” during the past two years.
SGA President Rob Ranley said dorm storming has positive effects.
“It is one of the best methods of outreach,” Ranley said. “When you are standing there, you get a direct connection. Having that one-to-one dialogue, you get a lot more out of the interaction.”
Former SGA President Joey Fiore also said dorm storming was the most effective way to reach out to students on campus.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been dorm storming and met students who are appreciative that their fellow students are trying to get something done on campus and care enough to ask for their input,” Fiore said.
However, some students said they doubt the effectiveness of dorm storming.
“It happens once and a while, not all the time,” said junior biochemistry major Eugene Barsukov. “I think it mostly annoys people.”
Chiavelli said the university’s policy applied to both student groups and non-student organizations, and was designed to keep the residence halls a comfortable place for students to live.
Middler psychology major Amanda Deavellar said she agreed with Ranley and Fiore that the person-to-person aspect of dorm storming might be the key to on-campus promotion.
“People will throw papers under the door and my roommates will just pick it up and throw it away without even looking at it,” Deavellar said. “If an actual person took the time to go around, it would be effective because they are probably passionate and actually want to talk to people instead of just putting papers under the door where they might or might not get a response.”
– News staff Anne Baker, Mike Napolitano and Michele Richinick contributed to this report.
