It has come to this: Student leaders at Kansas University hired a disc jockey to help them persuade their classmates to register to vote.

The scene was last week, when a disc jockey was spinning records on Wescoe Beach next to a table with clipboards and voter registration cards.

Jeff Allmon, a Wichita senior who helped organize the event, is convinced college students care about voting. They just need a little prodding.

“They just have a short attention span,” he said. “They need someone in their face reminding them to register, reminding them to vote. We have so much going on in our lives.”

Fueled by concern about higher education funding, Allmon, who is community affairs director for Student Senate, is helping lead an effort among several KU organizations to register 5,000 KU students to vote in the Nov. 5 election.

Starting two weeks ago and continuing through the Oct. 21 registration deadline, the Student Legislative Awareness Board will have a table daily on Wescoe Beach. Several organizations will be running the tables. So far, they’ve signed up 500 students.

Voter turnout among 18- to 24-year-olds traditionally has been lower than other age groups, said Brad Bryant, state elections director. But the state doesn’t have a program that directly targets young adults to vote.

That’s left registration to grassroots efforts such as the one under way at KU. Allmon said several KU organizations had voter registration drives in the past, but this was the first year for a joint project.

Kansas University student Caroline Wright, left, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore, registers to vote with the help of Amanda Meglemre, Overland Park junior. The KU Student Legislative Awareness Board staged the voter registration drive last week at Wescoe Beach.

“This way all the cards are coming through us,” he said. “We are the organization you can call if something slips up.”

Allmon said organizers also were collecting e-mail addresses for students to remind them before Nov. 5 to vote.

Students leaders said higher-education funding led to the organized effort for voter registration.

“It’s always important to get students registered to vote,” said Jonathan Ng, student body president. “It’s especially important this year because of the state funding of higher education. We’re trying to make that connection that your vote Nov. 5 will affect the future of your degree.”

He admitted it’s been difficult for organizers to be bipartisan especially in the governor’s race during a year when many are pointing fingers at Republicans for budget cuts.

Leaders of KU’s two major political groups also have been involved in the registration process.

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Erin Blocher, Colorado Springs senior and president of KU College Republicans, said many of the students she encountered were concerned about taxes as much as how well their school was funded.

“I find a lot of college students, being out on their own for the first time, fired up about taxes,” she said. “It’s the first point in their life when it finally hits them how much of their money is going back out of their pocket.”

Robin Anderson, Topeka senior and president of KU Young Democrats, said her group had been having its own registration drive in addition to the campuswide drive.

“We need to register Democrats,” she said. “But we’d register anybody who comes to the table.”

KU administrators for months have been stressing the importance of voting on Nov. 5.

Janet Murguia, executive vice chancellor for university relations, said registering a large number of college students could have an effect on the issues discussed among candidates.

“I think students realize more and more there is a connection between their vote and the impact felt on this campus,” she said. “They’re a group that can make an impact in these elections.”