The College Fix

Congressman says ‘nonpartisan’ student job includes ‘code words for a specific political agenda’

Students at Pacific University who want to make “communities more sustainable, equitable, and just” can apply for a taxpayer-funded job helping register voters for the upcoming election.

The position and others through the Federal Work Study program are facing criticism from Republican lawmakers after the Biden-Harris administration said the taxpayer-funded program could include jobs registering voters.

At the private university in Oregon, the job as a Pacific Votes Student Ambassador involves helping “fellow students register, vote, and engage in dialogue around democracy and youth voting rights.”

Students will work with “the Pacific Votes Workgroup, student organizations, and community partners to co-create voter engagement efforts,” according to the job description.

In the past, these have included the League of Women Voters, whose policy positions align more with the Democratic Party, including on abortion, guns, climate change, and male athletes who identify as female competing in women’s sports.

Students interested in the position should be “passionate about nonpartisan voter engagement,” the job description states.

However, it also says students must “participate in personal and team efforts to make our own communities more sustainable, equitable, and just.”

U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens, (pictured) who chairs the Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee, voiced concerns about the job description in a statement via email to The College Fix.

Despite saying the job is nonpartisan, Owens said it uses terms that have “increasingly become code words for a specific political agenda.”

“While it is important to encourage voter participation among our young people, it should be done in a way that reflects the balanced, fair approach that our university system is supposed to embody, rather than pushing a one-sided narrative under the guise of civic engagement,” he told The Fix.

The job is offered through the university’s McCall Center for Civic Engagement.

The center promotes “active citizenship” while “building a sense of empowerment to effect meaningful social participation” and helping students develop “critical thinking skills.”

While some groups hosted by the center in the past appear to be neutral civics groups like the Rotary Club, others are associated with progressive politics. These include the American Federation of Teachers, American Association of University Women, Willamette Women Democrats, and speakers on global warming.

The center and the university media relations team have yet to respond to multiple messages by phone and email from The Fix over the past few weeks asking about the job.

MORE: Penn State wants pro-DEI students for voter registration job

In February, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance on the financial aid program, stating work-study jobs may include registering voters.

The positions must be non-partisan and “not associated with a particular interest or group.” Additionally, a “student’s political support or party affiliation” can not be “taken into account in hiring,” according to the department.

A department spokesperson told The Fix in a recent emailed statement that work-study funds may be used to employ students for voter registration activities when they “are employed directly by the postsecondary institution.”

Additionally, funds may “be used for employment by a federal, state, local or tribal public agency for civic engagement work that is not performed to benefit a particular interest or group,” the spokesperson stated.

When the updated guidelines were first made public, Vice President Kamala Harris praised the effort to increase student voter participation.

This will “engage our young leaders in this process and activate them in terms of their ability to strengthen our communities,” Harris said in a statement at the time.

But some lawyers say the new guidance is likely illegal, and Republican lawmakers have voiced concerns about it benefitting a specific political agenda.

Previously, House Education Committee Chair Virginia Foxx called the updated guidelines a “vote-buying sweepstakes” for the Democrats.

More recently, Foxx’s office also criticized another job at Penn State University advertising students committed to “anti-racism practices” to work with the League of Women Voters to register votes.

This is “another attempt by the Biden-Harris administration to federalize elections and use taxpayer funds to advance the Democrats’ agenda,” a spokesperson for Foxx told The Fix in August.

MORE: Obama-backed group behind effort to use tax dollars to pay college students to register peers

IMAGE: House Committee on Education and the Workforce/YouTube

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