HomeNEWSNew Student Clubs Aim to Take Action on Campus

New Student Clubs Aim to Take Action on Campus

By SERIAH SARGENTON
Staff Writer

Two new student clubs have formed on the College of Saint Rose campus. With the political sphere in complete and utter chaos, the founders believe activism on campus is exactly what the student body needs.

As the era of President Trump begins, political activism has taken off on college campuses across the nation. The Saint Rose chapter of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) as well as the Saint Rose College Democrats are the newest additions to the growing trend.

The YAL chapter was formally started on campus in September 2016 by seniors Matt Pietrykowski and Brian Tomek with sophomore Dan Sanchez, but the chapter was first created the previous June by Pietrykowski. He was contacted by northeast regional director John Goodnight through Facebook after Goodnight saw that Pietrykowski liked pro-libertarian pages such as Ron Paul, Gary Johnson and Rand Paul.

Pietrykowski was inspired by the Facebook arguments he witnessed between the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton supporters, and the Ted Cruz and Donald Trump supporters. He saw that some people were making educated arguments while others were getting emotional over the topic. He wanted to make a change and bring another side to the story.

During his sophomore year at Arlington High School, Sanchez grew an interest in the idea of liberty so he researched former U.S Representative Ron Paul and his 2012 movement. Since then, Sanchez has felt that the ideology made sense, and decided that when he came to Saint Rose he would join the Young Americans for Liberty. Unfortunately, there was no YAL chapter on campus when he first arrived.

Once Tomek heard about an organization such as YAL, which spreads the message of individual liberty on college campuses, he jumped at the opportunity.

Tomek hopes that different groups of people on campus with opposing viewpoints can find common ground and work together on activism projects which are important to both sides.

YAL is one of the largest, most active, and fastest growing pro-liberty organization s on college campuses nationwide. There are over 804 YAL chapters and 308,927 youth activists. YAL dedicates itself to identify, educate, train and mobilize young people to win on principle.

“Young Americans for Liberty has continually grown and I felt that bringing in Saint Rose had a lot of potential to strengthen our New York network and national network,” said Goodnight, who got his start while an undergraduate political science student at the University of New Mexico.

The non-partisan chapter is aimed at students who share similar views such as classic liberals and conservatives who want to be a voice of change. The goal is to be an extra voice to people who want to be active and are unsure how. If students are interested, they will learn more about libertarianism.

“I want to give them a place to engage in an open discussion without being afraid,” said Dan Sanchez, the secretary of the Saint Rose YAL chapter.

They also want to partner with other politically active clubs on campus, attend community service events and promote political activism. In the future, the club hopes to have an open social or forum and a pizza politics social with the Saint Rose College Democrats.

“Let’s end divisiveness before now, before it gets truly out of hand, and have some non-partisan cooperation,” said Tomek.

The parent organization is the College Democrats of New York, which is a branch of College Democrats of America and the Democratic National Committee. The club hopes to become Student Association certified as soon as possible. This would provide the group with school funding and easier outreach to students and faculty on campus.

“As the official student arm of the Democratic National Committee, we, the College Democrats of America, do hereby dedicate ourselves to organizing college students from across the nation in order to encourage and develop the participation of young Americans in the political process and the Democratic Party. We strive to better our country and to promote the principles of equality, opportunity, social justice, and freedom within a just and strong society. As college students, we dedicate ourselves to representing the interests of students and youth within the political process,” as stated in the official College Democrats of America constitution.

This is what Saint Rose College Democrats aims to do. The club was founded by communications student Kyle Adams because he wanted to give students the option to get involved and to express their voice in the political process.

The Saint Rose College Democrats plans to become a platform for students to express themselves by taking action and, in turn, standing up for what they believe in. However, it also gives students who may not be certain of what they believe to learn about what the Democratic Party stands for and represents.

Adams wishes to create a detailed and constructive discussion of issues and for his newly founded club to take part in organizing events on campus and in the community. Adams also sees the possiblity of a partnership with another local branch of College Democrats at the University at Albany.

The issues the club will act on the most will reflect the issues the club members feel are the most important.

There a sense of uncertainty and fear coming from students because of the new presidential administration. Adams realizes that people know there is something wrong, but they don’t know what to do, and he wants to help.

Currently, there is no executive board for the club, but Adams plans to hold elections in the future after the club becomes more established on campus. The advisor of the club will be Ken Scott, the director of community service for the College, with support from Cailin Brown, the department chair of the communications department, and Joan Horgan, director of spiritual life.

Adams cited a quote from former president Barack Obama when talking of his inspiration for starting the club.

“Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it.” Adams was also inspired by filmmaker Michael Moore, in Adams’ eyes a perfect example of a relentless activist, and Shailene Woodley, who was arrested for engaging in protests in the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.

The club hopes to hold at least one voter registration event each semester and during the election for high school seniors and juniors, as well as formal debates, and a mock congress where a group of students will work together to create and propose a bill. The idea is to engage students with the experience of how government works.

“The political process does not begin or end with elections,” Adams said. “It is forever. Election Day is just like the birthday of political engagement, every day you still get older and everyday there are new laws and issues at risk of going in the wrong direction.”

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