During the second week of fall term, the Portland State College Democrats were reinstated as an official PSU club. The group has existed for the past two years but was unable to get enough officers and members together last spring to be counted as an official club, which also made them unable to apply for funding.
Brought back together by new president Landru Parker, the Portland State College Democrats plan to be much more active this year.
“It’s an exciting time for the club; we’re really getting back on our feet and starting to integrate ourselves back into the PSU community,” Parker said.
Currently the club is working on becoming a chapter of the National College Democrats Organization. They have also joined forces with University of Oregon and Pacific University in an effort to become certified as a state federation. These titles would give the College Democrats more power to endorse movements and candidates.
The club is also working to advance progressive causes by influencing public policy through voter awareness, outreach events, fundraising and signature gathering.
The group will support the election of progressive candidates and serve as a forum for political discussion and education. They also strive to provide the PSU community with resources to learn and act on political issues.
“We are really focused on political action. It’s great to be able to sit around and talk about issues, but it doesn’t do any good if nothing is then done about them,” Parker said. “We really prefer to talk about why an issue is important, explain what we can do and then go out and act.”
This quarter, the College Democrats are working closely with Oregon United for Marriage, a coalition working to win freedom to marry for same-sex couples in Oregon.
There was a training session at the club’s first meeting, allowing members to help gather signatures for petitions. They also canvassed at the recent Ok Go concert on campus, where they collected approximately 50 signatures toward the Oregon United for Marriage cause.
“We are very grateful for the help and efforts of the PSU College Democrats and look forward to collaborating with them in the future,” said Owen Christofferson, PSU chapter chair of Students United for Marriage, in an email.
The biggest challenge the club has faced so far has been rebuilding the club from scratch.
“It has its benefits though; being so new has pushed us to reach out to other student groups and partner together in collaborative efforts in order to be successful,” said Marcus Sis, vice president of the College Democrats.
Another important collaboration for the club is with the Students for a Sensible Drug Policy. They plan on working with student housing and the campus public safety office to get a Good Samaritan Policy put in place on campus.
This policy allows students to call 911 if assistance for an intoxicated or impaired student is needed, without having to fear that they themselves will be subject to college disciplinary action regarding the university’s alcohol policy.
The club is also working to pass a resolution through Associated Students of Portland State University to ban the use of student fee dollars on bottled water.
In the future, the College Democrats hope to have the power to endorse ballot issues and candidates statewide. They also plan to begin tabling on campus.
“We would love to table and have all the issues we support laid out so that someone stopping by to look at one petition may then realize they also want to sign the other three we have available,” Parker said. “It would be a great way to get the word out about a lot of topics at once.”
For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/PSUCollegeDems.
