By Greta Lieske
IV Leader Associate, Oct. 4, 2007
After many years of the Young Republicans being the only political party student organization on the Illinois Valley Community College campus, there is finally a College Democrats group for students.
Geology professor Mike Phillips and IVCC counselor Missy Killian are the faculty advisors of the new political student group, and Phillips has a few ideas as to why there were no Democratic student groups in the past.
“I was told that several faculty members have tried to start a College Democrats in the past and there were never enough students interested,” says Phillips. Another possible reason he gives “is that the students who are maybe Democratic leaning are also in other clubs that we have here at the college. There was a college environmental group, there is POWER, there’s Amnesty International and there’s the GSA, and I’m not saying that all those students in those groups would necessarily be Democrats, but those are organizations that kind of lean a little bit towards the liberal side.
“So the students that might join the Democrats are probably involved in other organizations,” continues Phillips, “so there’s kind of a limited pool of students that want to get involved in student organizations. So, we think that might be why no one has ever been able to make a go of it in the past.”
The College Democrats already have some ideas for fundraisers in the future, including a few activities in which the College Democrats and the Young Republicans will merge.
The Young Republicans contacted the College Democrats about doing a joint “Voice Your Vote” event on Wednesday, Nov. 28 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. in the IVCC lobby where there would be a simulated “voting booth” where students, faculty and staff can sit at a computer, access a Web site where they can take a political survey and then print their results.
At the time of publication the group has roughly 10 to 12 members and the group will have their next meeting on Monday, October 8 at noon and Phillips enthusiastically mentioned that he hopes everyone will “be involved!”
Instructors Dorene Perez and Jim Gibson are advisors for the Young Republican organization on campus.