Connecticut College Democrats (CC Dems) is the most active political organization on campus. They discuss the Democratic point of view on a variety of issues, ranging from gun control to abortion, but have found lately there seems to be a lack of constructive dialogue on those issues on campus. The group wants to broaden the points of view from which they discuss these topics, expanding beyond the consensus among Democratic students to include more points of view.
According to their description on Collegiatelink, “The Connecticut College Democrats is a political organization dedicated to raising political awareness of both local and national issues.” Yet the group has found that their name, which associates them with one of the nation’s two major political parties, has hindered them from achieving this goal of inclusive dialogue. This situation has prompted the group to explore the idea of changing their name from CC Democrats to CC Politically Inclined Students.
The group itself is very small, with a president, an executive board with three members and only a few active members who regularly attend meetings. Alicia Rea ’12, the club’s president, has expressed a strong desire to get more students actively participating in the club. She expressed worries that the group’s current name prevents people from getting involved. “We talked about making it more of a political issue group. People don’t come because it’s labeled as partisan,” Rea said.
Another common misconception of the group is that one has to have a previous knowledge on politics and contemporary affairs to be in the club. In fact, the intention is just the opposite. Rea herself joined the group as a freshman because she was curious about politics in Connecticut and wanted to learn more. She believes that the group should be a resource for students to become informed of local issues.
The first step CC Dems has taken towards their new goals was editing the group’s constitution, which they decided put too much emphasis on the Democratic point of view. “We revised a lot of it to make it more general, talking about the political system and how to get involved, so we’re still doing voter registration and we’re still volunteering for local campaigns.” Another amendment calls for the club’s vice president to write a newsletter each week informing students of the political events around New London and Connecticut.
The revisions to the constitution will hopefully reflect the group’s new direction. Ideally, they hope that there will be more room for conversation among members and across campus, and perhaps even debates. The group is also considering the possibility of structuring committees within the group, each with different political leanings. All committees would meet to hold discussions like the ones which CC Dems has now, yet there would be a wider variety of points of view and opinions to consider and discuss.
Outside the meetings on campus, two important and constant goals of the group are to increase voter registration and voter turnout in New London. Current municipal elections are coming up for the Board of Education, the City Counci sl and the Mayor. This election is especially exciting because it will decide the first elected Mayor of New London. In their efforts to promote voter registration, CC Dems will be having Voter Registration Drives in the upcoming weeks. These drives will take place in various common rooms with voter registration forms as well as information on all candidates in those elections.
“I feel like [encouraging voter participation] is reflective of the way our political system is moving right now,” Rea explained. With the growing influence of the Tea Party, Obama’s first term as President coming to an end and the Occupy Wall Street protests in full swing, this is a politically turbulent moment for the United States. Yet what is happening nationally is also occurring on local levels all over the country, and CC Dems holds the conviction that college students should be aware of the political situation and informed of what is happening at the local level.
CC Dems is acting on that belief by re-evaluating the way they work and how it affects the student body. “There would just be a forum in place for both parties to talk about what they need to talk about,” said Rea, “and that’s something we are really lacking right now on our campus.” •
