Student Democrats organize and recruit

By Kyle Inman

Members of the Missouri Western State University Democrats are excited about their new organization and its future goals.

Western has had a Republican organization for a long time, so when asked what took so long for the organization to form, members cited several reasons for the delay.

Jessica McMinn, the secretary for the democrat organization, voiced her opinion on what she thought took so long for the organization to form.

“We have had issues getting started because of some bogus reasons like Newt Gingrich speaking on campus,” McMinn said. “Campus authorities were going to deny us to be a club because they didn’t want us to protest his speech.”

Amanda Johnson, vice president of the democrat organization, also felt that convocation speaker Newt Gingrich coming to Missouri Western had something to do with the delay in receiving a charter.

“Our application was denied in the beginning by SGA because of the possibility of protest at the Newt Gingrich speech,” Johnson said. “We were not planning on protesting.”

If in fact the college democrat’s application was denied by the SGA for the fear of protest, then the SGA wasn’t denying the organization the right to form, but their right to the First Amendment to the constitution of the United States.

Matt Hunt, president of the democrat organization, wants students to become involved in the organization even if they are not a democrat.

“We would like to invite all the students of Missouri Western State University to join our organization and to get involved,” Hunt said. “If you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent with concerns about the direction the country is headed then come to one of our meetings.”

The democrat organization has a lot of ways for students to become involved. Each month they plan to have an alternating theme. Poverty will be their theme for the month of December.

The organization has lots of events planned that they are excited about. One event McMinn said she was excited about was the sock drive.

“We are going to run a fundraiser collecting socks and underwear for underprivileged children and our running slogan for that is ‘Put a Sock on Poverty,” McMinn said.

Another event planned for the month of December includes the showing of Michael Moore’s film “Capitalism, A Love Story.” The film will air Dec. 13 in Spratt 205 at 7:00 p.m.

The organization also meets every other Monday at 7:00p.m. in Spratt 205. The meetings are open to the public and membership is not required. Membership is free but if you want to become a “good standing” member or run for office, you must pay a yearly $20.00 fee. The fee does include a group t-shirt. More information on the student democrat organization can be found at http://www.mwsudems.yolasite.com/.