Cassie Lathrope | Executive Editor | clathrope@mail.smcvt.edu
With Election Day less than two months away, St. Michael’s College students Ava Madden, ’27, and Julianne Giordano, ’27, were disappointed in the lack of opportunities for students to learn about politics on campus.
Giordano said, “There’s no real activism… and I think part of that is there’s no opportunity for people to be active in politics on this campus.”
Madden and Giordano, who are studying political science, said they need to take these classes to have places to speak on current events and engage in debates.
“That’s [Political Science] my major. So if it were just my interest and not what I wanted to pursue, I think I wouldn’t really know where to go for that,” Madden said.
Last Spring, Madden and Giordano said their attempt to start a club for Democrats on campus was met with pushback from the Student Government Association (SGA) leadership.
“We wanted to start this Young Democrats club, but then we were told that because of the constitution, we couldn’t,” Giordano said.
The St. Michael’s College SGA constitution outlines in Article 14, Section B, Subsection 5, that “partisan clubs shall not be eligible for SGA recognition.” It defines partisan clubs as “any club or organization that is directly affiliated with a political party.”
When asked to further elaborate on the reasoning behind the amendment, Assistant Director of Conferences and Special Events, James Baker said he would rather have conversations about giving more money to pre-existing clubs than starting clubs with political connections.
SGA President Jarrett Sweet, ’25, said, “I don’t think we want to be funding political clubs… all our money comes from the student body paying. So, that’s not money that should be going to a political organization.”
After being informed about the status of political clubs in the SGA, Madden and Giordano attempted to pitch a political awareness club, free of party affiliation and open to everyone.
“We wrote up a constitution of exactly what we wanted our club to do,” Madden said. “We wanted to educate the campus on candidates, policy, each party, who was running, how to vote, and how to get an absentee ballot.”
Despite making changes, the students said former SGA President, Dakota Thomas, ’24, had concerns about the longevity of the club and its ability to be nonpartisan.
“We had written up a constitution, we made a presentation for the SGA. We did all those things. We sent them along, and then there was just kind of no word,” Madden said.
Last spring, Madden and Giordano were added to an initiative through the Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts (MOVE). This fall the students were added to an SGA council to encourage students to register to vote and provide informational material.
“We’re tabling for people registering to vote, it’s great, but we’re doing exactly what our constitution said we want to do, but now we’re doing it… without our name under it,” said Giordano.
Baker and Kerri Leach, director of student activities, have encouraged these students to re-present their club to current SGA leadership. “I’d say if they wanted to come back with their constitution, it’s new leadership. It can be revisited,” said Baker.
Leach and Baker both agreed that healthy debate is valuable.
“Knowing, like, we’re not all going to agree, but we’re going to listen to each other,” Leach said. “We’re going to be open-minded, and this is an academic atmosphere so that would be ideal.”
“Julianne and I plan on trying again this year to start up the club and hope to have better results,” said Madden.