Student voices are being heard as Ames residents prepare to vote on whether to lower Ames City Council terms from four years to two. More than 700 ISU students petitioned in February to add the issue to the April 5 special election ballot.

Nathan Johnston, senior in finance, ran for a City Council seat during the 2003 election after he heard about inappropriate encounters between students and Ames police.

During his campaign, which he lost to Councilman Matthew Goodman, he said he realized many issues are not of major concern to students.

Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco said students have not served on the City Council in recent years. He convinced the council two and a half years ago, however, to instate an ex-officio ISU student council representative from the Government of the Student Body to improve communication between the two bodies. He said very few students have run for voting positions on City Council in recent years and he does not think that will change if term limits are reduced.

“There is nothing against a student running now,” Tedesco said. “What students need to look at is the time involvement.”

Johnston held the position of ex-officio representative during the 2003-04 term and described the role as a “trophy position,” saying many of his ideas seemed to be ignored by council members.

“On issues that didn’t relate to students, they didn’t really want to hear anything from me,” Johnston

said. “I just had to be there and smile.”

Henry Alliger, GSB speaker of the senate, said decreasing term lengths does not necessarily mean a student will be elected to City Council, but a shorter commitment makes the council more accessible to residents who are not willing to make a four-year commitment.

“Making terms accessible to everyone definitely helps build toward the one community everybody is talking about,” Alliger said.

Student issues across the nation have been prompting more student involvement in local governments where student-city climates are comparable to Iowa State’s.

Travis Luther Lowe, senior in government and mathematics at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., and Philip Shackelford, junior in political science at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, have recently campaigned for their local city councils after becoming concerned about student rights.

Lowe said he began his city council bid in January 2004 after becoming aware of laws he called “anti-student.” These laws included parking enforcement problems, noise ordinance policies and a law limiting the number of unrelated persons living in a single-family unit to three people.

Soon after his campaign began, Lowe was denied the right to be on the ballot because he was not considered a permanent resident of Williamsburg and was therefore ineligible to vote in that district. Many students in Williamsburg, about 7,500 of the 12,000 residents, are denied the right to register in Virginia because their parents live elsewhere.

“It makes no sense to vote where I am three months out of the year,” Lowe said. “Forty-seven percent of Americans move every five years. We are a transient society. To single out students is anti-democratic.”

Lowe appealed his case in court, and after $60,000 in legal fees, won the right to vote in Williamsburg based on his six-year commitment to the Virginia National Guard. Though it was too late to be included on the ballot, Lowe co-founded the Student Voting Rights Campaign, an organization dedicated to the right of college students to vote where they live during college.

Shackelford also became alarmed by government actions he felt were not student-friendly. He formed the Texas Coalition for Student Affairs to combat legislative tuition increases. He took action when College Station officials proposed reducing the number of unrelated persons who can legally live in a single-family unit from four to two people. Shackelford said such laws would devastate students, who make up about 45,000 of the more than 80,000 residents.

Shackelford said he noticed a widening gap between permanent residents and the student population in his town and wanted to be an independent representative who would help bridge the gap.

“College Station seems to be developing segments, which is not healthy for the community,” Shackelford said. “There is a permanent college community that everyone’s got to learn to live with.”

Shackelford is spending his own money to campaign against three opponents in his district for the city council election. He has organized a team of more than 35 volunteers to go door-to-door to get his name out in the community.

Shackelford hopes to spend no more than $2,000 and expects to get outspent 10 to 1 by opponents.

The College Station City Council term limit is three years, which has not discouraged Shackelford, who plans to make College Station his home after graduation.

“I hope students in Ames will push to get involved,” Shackelford said.

“Until you get involved and become a stakeholder in the community, it’s hard to develop a good place for students, residents and businesses.”