Between 100 and 150 students from approximately 20 Massachusetts colleges and universities made their way to Tufts this weekend to attend the Massachusetts College Democrats Convention.
The convention consisted of student discussion sessions and brought in over a dozen speakers, most notably Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Deval Patrick, Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee Susan Turnbull, and US Representative Barney Frank (D - MA).
Approximately 60 students from the further schools were hosted overnight by Tufts Democrats. Between 20 and 30 Tufts Democrats participated.
President of the Tufts Democrats Aaron Banks said that a "three-man committee" of Banks, Tufts Democrats freshman representative Garrison Jones and Boston College Senior and President of the College Democrats of Massachusetts (CDM) Justin Galacki took the lead in organizing the convention. They were assisted by the rest of the Tufts Democrats Executive Board, including Vice President Scott Merrick.
"It was a huge group effort," Merrick said.
Issues discussed at the convention included "what College Democrats are doing in different chapters," Merrick said. We're "trying to connect with each other and coordinate strategy."
One major focus of this discussion was growing the organization by introducing new chapters.
"The [potential for] growth there is clearly at the junior college level," said Banks, adding that forming chapters is "a lot harder in community colleges because people don't live there."
There are "whole new challenges and different approaches," he added.
Tufts junior and CDM vice president-elect Kayt Norris (see accompanying article) said that Holyoke Community College, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, was the only community college she knows of that has a College Democrats chapter, though she believes that others are on their way.
The newly-formed Holyoke chapter has approximately 10 members, Norris said, and is trying to organize its first event.
Policy issues were also a focus of discussion at the convention.
"What a lot people seemed to concentrate on was the message of the Democratic Party," Merrick said, noting that there is a perception that Democrats as a whole have recently lacked strong stances on key issues. Some of the talks, for example, urged Democrats to form concrete platforms involving an exit strategy from Iraq and a way to fight rising energy costs.
Logistical issues involving how to improve individual campus organizations, such as web design and group publicity, were also addressed.
Tufts was selected to host the convention after Banks lobbied the state board. His appeal to the CDM highlighted the group's efforts this year, including a voter registration drive and its work to bring Senator John Kerry and comedian and author Al Franken to campus.
The Tufts Democrats were informed of Tufts' selection as host approximately a month and a half ago. Banks was happy with the way it was planned, but admitted that the short amount of time available for preparation made planning difficult in some ways, including reserving rooms for
events.
Last year, the event was not hosted by a particular school but took place in the Sheraton Commander hotel in Harvard Square.
Patrick headlined the slate at the convention on Saturday afternoon in Pearson Hall.
He addressed a multitude of issues, including maintaining the property tax, minimum wage, renewable energy, gay marriage, health care and the demise of modern politics.
He started with the issue of public higher education, one of the major focuses of his campaign. The state of Massachusetts, he said, is ranked 47th in state spending on public higher education, "behind Alabama and Mississippi."
"Nobody says to the EMT, 'Take your time,'" Patrick said. "Nobody wants to build their own roads or put out their own fires. People want good schools."
Patrick emphasized the scope of the public education debate, noting that it is not limited to colleges and universities, but pertains also to high schools and elementary schools. "Wealthy communities aren't safe from bad education either," he said.
For a significant portion of his talk, Patrick turned his attention away from the issues and towards the morality of politics and the growing discontent and apathy towards politicians as a whole.
"People are turned off by politics, and politicians only want to focus on the strategy to win the election, not the principle or the 'why,'" he said.
"It's been a while since we've heard a governor who wants to do the job," Patrick said, "not just have the job."
Patrick also discussed the importance of getting students and young people involved in
politics.
"It's their future and it's their job to help get their candidate elected," he said in an interview with the Daily after his speech. "It's their campaign and their chance to [create] a more forward-looking campaign and government, which is part of the whole grassroots nature of what we are doing."
"I think he sets himself apart because he really interacts and tries to relate to the common citizen," said Jennifer Paun, a Boston College senior.
The Tufts Democrats overwhelmingly support Patrick over his Democratic primary opponent, Tom Reilly, according to Banks.
Senior Rafi Goldberg, who is volunteering on Patrick's campaign team, introduced Patrick, calling him "one of the most moral and effective leaders he's ever seen."
Also this weekend, five delegates from the Tufts Republicans, including President Kevin Johannsen, attended the Massachusetts Alliance of College Republicans annual convention this weekend, which was held at the Marriot Long Wharf Hotel in downtown Boston.
"We all enjoyed ourselves," Johannsen said. "It was an opportunity to network [and] to see what was working at other universities."
Speakers at the conference included Jeffrey Beatty, who is running for Congress in the 10th district of Massachusetts, Michael Atwill, who is running for the State Senate in Attelboro, and Massachusetts State Representative John Lepper.
Kat Schmidt contributed reporting to this article.
