Presidential primaries are around the corner, but many St. John’s students haven’t seen any involvements from College Democrats and College Republicans chapters this semester.
Senior Italian major, Isabelle Mendez, like many other students on campus, was wondering what happened to these organizations. They are currently inactive but will be involved next semester on campus.
“Presently, the College Republicans are an inactive student organization but are trying to get Power to Organize status from Student Government,” Professor Brian Browne, assistant vice president for government relations, said in an email. “The College Democrats are also in limbo with Student Government, because they did not meet some necessary requirements for student organizations,” he said.
Even though both chapters are not involved on campus for the time being, they are expected to resume with their active roles before the presidential campaign.
“It is my hope that both groups will be back up and running in the spring 2016 semester in time for the presidential campaign,” Professor Browne added.
The College Democrats of New York is the official college outreach wing of the New York State Democratic Party. It was founded in 1932, and according to the organization’s website, the College Democrats of New York aims to “empower young progressives, one student at a time.”
There are approximately 25 chapters in New York State. The goal of the College Democrats Chapter at St. John’s is to engage students in the process of American democracy while being an outlet for them to become educated on the important political issues.
On the other hand, the College Republicans is a national organization for university students who support the Republican Party. It was founded in 1892 and its goal is to “help elect Republican candidates, support the Republican agenda and become the future leaders of the conservative movement,” as stated by the College Republican National Committee website.
According to the national committee, there are currently over 250,000 College Republican’s around the country and more than 1,800 campuses in every state and Washington, D.C.
“As a club, we are trying to both help build the Republican Party as a whole as well as build the club on campus, educate students on the issues and to promote conservatism,” Greg Mitchell, 2012 president of the College Republicans of St. John’s, said in an article for the Torch titled “Liberals aren’t the only ones getting out the vote” on November 7, 2012.
The current president for College Democrats was reached out to, but did not respond in time for deadline.
Although their goals differ a little, the outcome is the same; these two organizations help college students become more educated in politics.
Even though both organizations are officially inactive, they continue to have small gatherings and events around campus such as general body meetings and the Democratic debate that happened on campus last week.
“Hopefully, they will have a College Democrat versus College Republican debate next semester,”Mendez said.
