Every day it feels like something new is happening in politics. Every time I get a notification from Twitter, I roll my eyes and prepare for the worst (which has already happened for me at least three times this fall). Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, a Libertarian, a Socialist, or anything in between and beyond, you’re probably concerned about something that’s going on in United States politics.
So how do we, as college students, get involved? What are ways that we can stay informed, connect with others who have similar interests as us, and potentially change our futures?
The answer for me, as someone who self identifies as liberal, was found by joining Northeastern University College Democrats.
I was lucky enough to get to interview the e-board and some other curious Northeastern students for questions on what the College Dems are all about, and what makes them the self-proclaimed “coolest party on campus” (as quoted from their Instagram bio, @neucollegedems).
Here is their e-board for the 2020 school year:
- Jack Roarty, President
- Natalie Hill, Vice President
- Joshua Sisman, Communications Director
- Ryan Wallace, Political Director
- Ben Harrold, Parliamentarian
- Cameron McIndoe, Treasurer (Absent)
- Akash Mahesh, Inclusion & Ethics Director
- Ioanna Ploumi, SGA Representative
When do you meet, and what are meetings like?
Jack: Every Thursday at 6 P.M. on Zoom. Check out our Instagram, which has a link to the Slack channel (the club’s primary form of communication). Meetings are generally conversational, and we often have interesting guests come in who will tell us about their jobs or an aspect of politics that they are an expert in.
Natalie: …We try to talk about current events and what is going on in the news cycle.
What are things college dems have done to support the 2020 election?
Ryan: One thing I have led the effort on as political director is organizing Senate phone banks for different candidates in key battleground states. We’ve done about 6 different phone banks this semester.
Josh: We’ve also done a lot of educational posts on our Instagram to try to inform members and students on issues and help them – indirectly – get informed on issues that could influence votes. It’s important to be aware of what’s going on. Follow us at @neucollegedems.
Are there any specific legislative stances or political issues that you as a club have endorsed beyond the Democratic Party?
Ben: This isn’t necessarily a partisan issue, but we recently endorsed Yes on 1 and Yes on 2 in the Massachusetts election. Yes on 1 is the Right to Repair and Yes on 2 is Ranked Choice Voting. Those aren’t really partisan issues – actually I don’t think we have endorsed any partisan issues.
Josh: No, we supported the Pass/Fail legislation and the Election Day legislation in the SGA senate. The Pass/Fail legislation was to expand the pass/fail policy for the fall semester, and the Election Day legislation was to make Election Day a holiday.
Ioanna: For 2020 specifically.
Josh: Yeah. We’ve done both external and internal – within the school – endorsements.
Natalie: We’ve done a lot in terms of Massachusetts voter registration. We’ve made a lot of educational and informational material to distribute about the process of getting and sending in ballots. We’ve worked with NUVotes to get stamps distributed to every RA office on campus and we’ve made maps identifying where USPS collection boxes are. I would say that’s been a very large focus of ours this semester.
Ioanna: Something I noticed, as someone who is also on the leadership board of NUVotes, was that Northeastern was very hesitant to have us set up registration on campus, but after I pushed them and got a lot of support from College Democrats, they opened up to it.
What is your relationship with the Northeastern University College Republicans?
Natalie: We’ve historically had a very positive relationship with the College Republicans. Every time we’ve wanted to collaborate with them they are accepting of it, but we usually are the ones to reach out. We recently had a very well attended debate with three representatives from each club, which created a very rigorous discussion about the political landscape right now. I would say it’s a positive working relationship.
Jack: I think this semester we’ve collaborated less due to the pandemic, which limits us with doing things together. Especially with the upcoming election, I think both clubs generally have less interest in listening to the other side while tensions are so high.
Ben: It’s not so much that tensions are high – even though they are. It’s that we are so engaged in our own 2020 campaign that we would rather do that than collaborate. It’s important to work with them… but we also want to win (laughs). I’ll also add that our relationship with the College Republicans has always been good. We’ve even had times when we would go to their meetings and they would come to ours.
Ryan: Before Covid we would do community service together.
How do you think students, regardless of political affiliation, should stay politically active after the election?
Jack: At least in our immediate future, I see a lot of celebration or a lot of crying (laughs). Going forward… I think we’ve done a good job transitioning to being online. I expect we’ll still be online in the spring, and we now know how to conduct meetings electronically. There’s always an election every year – in odd-numbered years are city elections. In 2021, Boston’s entire city council and mayor are up for reelection, so I think we’ll be shifting our focus towards that, and continuing to get interesting officials at our meetings.
Ben: I think that the sad and maybe exciting thing about politics is that there’s always another election to run. I would say in terms of our club and our activities and outreach, one thing that the College Dems has always tried to do is get people who are not politically engaged to start to be more active. One of the problems is that everyone on the e-board is kind of a politics nerd. We read about politics all the time, we know about every bill coming in front of congress-
Natalie: Speak for yourself.
Ben: Okay, not every bill! (laughs). A lot of our members don’t know that kind of stuff. They come to College Dems because they want to learn more. I see our trajectory as one to satisfy politics nerds but also break down politics for people who are just getting into it.
Akash: I just recently joined the e-board, but something I’ve noticed is that we focus on educating and informing during our meetings as a way to highlight the current issues and elections. One of the best things, which echoes Jack and Ben, regardless of what is happening in politics, there will always be an issue to talk about. No one expects 100% smooth sailing for four years, no matter who wins. Addressing those and talking about how people can get involved is really important.
Natalie: I would echo that. No matter who wins the election there will be problems within the administration. Last spring we were slated to have a huge panel talking about environmental issues, and I hope to do that again this upcoming year, evaluating where we go from where we are. We also have co-op panels and have a women’s caucus. If there is a new legislation, it is important to continue being politically engaged. It’s easy to be interested in the election right now, but there could be a sense of apathy after the election that is really important to avoid.
Ioanna: Again, with the mayoral election next year, we do have a lot of students who are out of state… and we want to make sure we are providing resources for them at the local level. Connecting them with the resources is something that I hope to focus more on in the future.
Final remarks?
Ioanna: Check out NUVotes! We have/had a big event on Election Day!! Follow @NEUVotes!
Ben: And please vote.
Working with the e-board was very fun. I’ve been attending their meetings for a few weeks, and I’ve found that they are incredibly welcoming and fun to work with. I know few other people who care as much about the future of our country and know so much about current events. After this election, I encourage everyone who falls left of the political sphere to attend their meetings, and if you have opposing views, I encourage you to check out College Republicans (@nucollegerepublicans).
Politics do not end after this election! As Natalie Hill said, it is important to work against political apathy, no matter who wins on November 3rd.