News
College political groups still busy in this off-election year
The pointer
ajuhn217@uwsp.edu
Last year at this time, United States citizens were being constantly bombarded with campaign ads, debates and political organizations pushing their respective candidate’s views on you in hopes to persuade.
Since the election, the political groups have been not quite as vocal or visible, but the College Democrats and College Republicans are still working hard to serve the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student body.
The College Republicans claim to be more active than the College Democrats since the election last fall.
Patrick Testin, College Republican president, said he thinks it is funny that, “they have their candidate in and then fall off the face of the earth.
The executive director of the College Republicans Matt Steiger feels similarly. “I think we are on the up as far as if you look at College Dems they are basically non-existent.”
The College Republicans have been working on many things to get more students involved after much interest was expressed in the group at the involvement fair about a month ago.
“It shows a lot of people are starting to wake up and the blinders are coming off of this Obama sensation that has rocked the country,” said Testin. “People have started to realize maybe this is not the right direction. I think that’s where we are going to get a lot of support for this year and next year.”
The biggest event the College Republicans said they are planning for this semester is the on-campus world premiere of the movie, “Not Evil. Just Wrong.” A film that is said to expose the true human cost of the global warming hysteria fronted by Al Gore.
The movie will be shown at 7 p.m. On Sunday, Oct. 18, and Tuesday, Oct. 20.
The College Republicans are working with the state affiliated Republican group as well as on the county level, taking advantage of the opportunities these groups provide to the college level groups.
Testin and Steiger said this includes preparing for the 2010 election, getting state level figures to speak on campus and a possibility of one if not two conventions.
But they are not forgetting the original reason this student organization exists.
“We are still doing what we can to get our message out there, promote conservative principles, party values, less government, our own rights,” said Testin.
The College Democrats have expressed interest in co-sponsoring an event with the College Republicans. They are open to the idea.
Steiger said the College Republicans would be open to the idea if it was something fun like “Pie a Democrat or Republican” and donate the money to a non-profit.
The College Democrats have been working behind the scenes to build more interest in the group since last fall’s election.
The College Democrats president, Greg Ubbelohde said they are going to help with Stevens Point School District referendum coming up in November.
Both Ubbelohde and Matt Guidry, the College Democrats treasurer, want to work to educate students on much larger issues like how the health care bill affects students, making higher education affordable and how environmentalism and sustainability affect living.
Ubbelohde said he wants to get away from the negative stigma a political party organization can have for people.
“We want to hear everybody’s ideas. How we can best serve students. Whether that is community service projects or informing people on campaign issues. That’s really all it is,” said Ubbelohde.
He also said he wants to fix “young person apathy toward information.”
“It would be a perfect world if every student is knowledgeable and had an opinion on the important issues.”
Both political student organizations are thinking about forming additional student organizations to assist those students who don’t associate themselves as republican or democratic.
Ubbelohde said he is thinking about a progressive party but still has some logistics to sort out. “I figured that would scare the hell out of students.”
Steiger said they are considering the college conservatives. “This would be for people who don’t identify with Republicans but have conservative values and want to be involved in conservative causes. That would be a channel for them to do these things.”
Some conservative non-profits cannot bring in speakers or sponsor events through a student organization affiliated with a political party like the College Republicans. This would be an appropriate avenue to create these opportunities on campus.
If interested both of these student organizations can be easily contacted through e-mail, Student Involvement and Employment Office and the Web. The College Republicans also can be found at http://www.uwsp.edu/studorg/reps/.
Both groups can be found on Facebook.
College Republican meeting time: Mondays at 7 p.m. In Dreyfus University Center 378; the College Democrats’ first meeting: Wednesday, Oct. 14, 4 p.m in the DUC Brewhaus.
