Junior Kayt Norris, Internship Coordinator of the Tufts Democrats, was elected Vice President of the College Democrats of Massachusetts (CDM) at the CDM convention, held at Tufts this weekend.
"The position is really in charge of bringing together all of the College Democrat chapters of the states, and being a resource for those chapters," Norris said. "We also work closely with the state party."
Norris said that in the past, the responsibilities of the position have been unspecific. She hopes to change this by being "an active vice president that takes on her own initiatives and projects."
Her victory can be considered an upset due to the structure of the voting system. Most schools with students running for office ran a ticket of candidates.
"Block voting among groups makes it very difficult for a student to be elected if they are not on a ticket," Norris said. Typically, it's "really decided before you even get there."
According to Tufts Democrats President Aaron Banks, however, even candidates who ran as part of a ticket made little reference to their running-mates this year, essentially running independently.
"It was good. People ran on the merit of their campaign," Banks said.
Tufts did not put forward a ticket of candidates, so Norris decided to run on her own.
She defeated David Glick of Clark University and Josh Robin of Northwestern University, both of whom ran as part of a ticket of school candidates. Norris earned 75 percent of the vote of convention participants. Her campaign strategy, she said, made the difference.
"I called as many people as I physically could get my hands on," she said. "I told them, 'I want to have a conversation, and you tell me about your chapter, and I'll tell a little bit about mine.' I think that's what made the difference."
Norris' platform was built around three main points. "I care about communication, which is pretty basic," she said. "I wanted the chapters to have regional meetings so they're getting together every month, and also have a retreat over winter break and at the beginning of the year to do programming as a larger group."
Professional and funding opportunities were the second focus of Norris' platform. "Schools should be doing more to provide internship opportunities to students," she said, citing Tufts' own successful internship program. She also proposed that CDM provide grants to more College Democrat chapters in order to finance program events.
Her final objective centered on the philosophy of the organization. "College Democrats tend to be really reactionary," she said, describing how college politicians tend to get their ideas from media stories or local politicians' platforms.
College Democrats should also "really think about the issues we really care about, and take on issues of our own as College Democrats," she said.
Norris is pleased with the direction the Tufts chapter is taking. "Our chapter this year has just skyrocketed and really done very well," she said. "Lots of kids are super-involved in Democratic politics."
Norris is the second Tufts student to hold a position on the CDM. Senior Jenna Dreher served as Programming Director this year.
CORRECTION, APR. 11, 2006 In yesterday's News article "At convention, Norris elected VP of Mass. College Democrats" (Apr. 10, 2006), Josh Robin's school was misidentified. He attends Northeastern University, not Northwestern University.
