This year, University of Wisconsin College Democrats will work to bring students together and move toward a vision of a more inclusive campus.
Our university is undergoing a rapid transformation. We will graduate from a campus that is unrecognizable from the one we applied to.
We are in the midst of an unprecedented budget cut, along with the hollowing out of important institutions like professor tenure and shared governance.
In addition, the way we elect representatives is changing. With the implementation of voter ID statewide, hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites have been made defenseless.
Students are hit disproportionately hard. Even here at UW, our student IDs do not meet the requirements of the IDs necessary to vote.
It is becoming more difficult to participate in our democracy.
Why should you care about politics as a student at UW? The usual tropes try to invoke the effects of politics on your everyday life. It is always a guilt trip about voting, and making sure not to complain if you do not vote.
And all this may be true, but it is not why you should be interested and involved in campus politics.
Politics have a much more direct and profound impact on your life as a Badger than it ever has before and perhaps more than it ever will.
These policies should be motivational, helping you channel your frustration into action.
College Democrats are doing just that. Even in the face of voter restrictions, we registered more than 1,500 students to vote in last year’s gubernatorial election. The hard work paid off and students turned out in favor of Mary Burke, Gov. Walker’s opposing candidate.
In the face of Walker’s detrimental budget cuts, we held events to inform students of the direct impacts of the cuts.
As Walker’s radical conservative policies engulfed state government, we focused our efforts on the local City Council race, electing UW student and College Democrat Zach Wood.
UW graduate Zach Wood makes the switch from student to Madison alder
This coming year will involve building up the campaigns of candidates so we can elect people who respect and represent students in 2016, such as candidate Russ Feingold who is running for Senate.
We also will be busily preparing for the Presidential Election. While we are not supporting any single Democratic candidate, we will be spreading the word on campus on why electing a Democrat in 2016 is imperative.
All of the Democratic candidates have presented plans to reduce student loan debt and rein in the cost of tuition.
Unlike Republican candidates, who see massive budget cuts to the UW System as more important than making college affordable to students.
We need to elect a president who understands what massive student loan debt means to a middle class family, as well as the larger economy. We need to elect a president who is willing to fight to refinance student loans and will build a pathway to free two-year education.
All of our efforts, as College Democrats, work towards bringing students together. When we work together, we can truly accomplish incredible things on our campus.
August McGinnity-Wake ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science and environmental studies.
