Casey Ryder, Staff Writer |
Are you somebody with conservative political leanings that would like a space to discuss current events and political topics? If yes, you’ll be happy to hear that there is a club waiting for you!
The Oneonta College Republicans club is a group of Republicans on campus that meet once a week on Mondays at 5:30 p.m. in IRC Lecture Hall 9 to discuss the news and politics from a conservative point of view. When the group meets, the meeting typically consists of going over whatever events they’re putting on, discussing important news topics, and at the end of the meeting, opening the floor to any topic that people would like discussed.
The club puts on several events throughout the course of the year, and a number of those events are done in collaboration with the other political clubs on campus. Club President, James Marci, said he’s proud of the healthy relationship that exists between the clubs. He said, “A lot of the events we do, we do with the other political science clubs… We’re very proud that we do a lot of good work with the other clubs. I myself happen to be very good friends with the people who run the other political clubs so there is that connection. There’s not much hostility.”
They are also a credentialed chapter of the New York Federation of College Republicans (NYFCR) which is a network of Republicans across college campuses in the state of New York. The NYFCR is now separate from the College Republican National Committee (CRNC) and as a result, the club tends to focus on issues surrounding New York.
With the elections that are coming up in the fall, Marci says that state elections are where the group’s focus is. “We are extremely focused on the statewide races,” Marci said. “Obviously, in Oneonta, lots of people come from lots of different areas, so I definitely want to get out the profiles of these statewide people.”
In addition to the statewide elections, Marci said he wants people to focus on their local elections and he hopes to end the democratic supermajorities that currently exist in the state legislature, which he feels has failed New York. He said, “I want individual people to focus on their local races. I think that everyone should know who their member in the state senate is and who their member in the state assembly is because that vote is where you’re going to have the most impact because it’s a smaller sample size… As of right now, the Democrats have supermajorities in the state senate and the state assembly which means that they can override any veto from the governor. So, the goal for Republicans is to at the very least end the supermajorities. One party rule hasn’t been successful.”
Suny Oneonta in terms of both the student body and the faculty tends to be pretty left-leaning, and so it’s easy for students with a conservative viewpoint to feel left out. Therefore, the club was created back in the fall, to give conservative students the opportunity to discuss political issues with like-minded people.
If you’re a Republican and you’re still unsure about whether or not to join the club, take it from Marci who said, “Step out of the shadows, be engaged, and be the best version of yourself that you can be so that when someone thinks of a Republican, they think of a good person like you.”
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