Lack of political interest on campus has affected efforts to establish politically-based clubs on campus. According to Bob Cole of Student Activities, Student Life has not had a recognized Young Democrats or Young Republicans club in three to four years.
“These political organizations come and go depending on if there are students around who have some interest, they fluctuate by the year,” says Cole.
Students hoping to organize the Politics Society in the Political Science Department this semester were stifled by a lack of interest in the group. Karen Barrows, a senior Political Science major involved with the attempt, says “It’s tough getting things going on this campus. ”
“There is political interest,” says Barrows, adding, “Views just aren’t challenged here.”
Graduate student Heidi Conneely agrees. “We wanted to use it as an educational tool for politics, interest just wasn’t there, people don’t want to get involved,” says Conneely, citing the lack of full-time faculty with the time to oversee the Politics Society as a factor in its inactivity this semester.
A UMB Democrats endeavor remains inactive on campus, aside from flyers in the Political Science Department and a website, umbdems.org, recruiting members and outlining their goals for this fall.
“I got swamped and the other people starting it got swamped with other commitments,” says Arthur Guray, a senior Political Science major who was involved with the club. “We didn’t get to recruit as aggressively as we wanted.” Guray says the club hopes it will be more successful next semester.
UMB’s listed coordinator for Students for Kerry, David Howard, is no longer active, having taken the semester off to work on the Democratic campaign.
“As far as I know there is no one else on UMB campus acting as the head of the Students for Kerry,” says Howard, vice-chair of Young Democrats of Massachusetts. Efforts at finding UMB’s active Republican equivalent were unsuccessful. UMB’s listed coordinator for Students for Kerry, David Howard, is no longer active, having taken the semester off to work on the Democratic campaign.
“As far as I know there is no one else on UMB campus acting as the head of the Students for Kerry,” says Howard, vice-chair of Young Democrats of Massachusetts. Efforts at finding UMB’s active Republican equivalent were unsuccessful.